Library / English Dictionary

HEN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Female of certain aquatic animals e.g. octopus or lobster

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("hen" is a kind of...):

female (an animal that produces gametes (ova) that can be fertilized by male gametes (spermatozoa))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Adult female bird

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("hen" is a kind of...):

bird (warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrates characterized by feathers and forelimbs modified as wings)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Adult female chicken

Synonyms:

biddy; hen

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("hen" is a kind of...):

chicken; Gallus gallus (a domestic fowl bred for flesh or eggs; believed to have been developed from the red jungle fowl)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "hen"):

cackler (a hen that has just laid an egg and emits a shrill squawk)

brood hen; broody; broody hen; setting hen; sitter (a domestic hen ready to brood)

mother hen (a hen with chicks)

layer (a hen that lays eggs)

pullet (young hen usually less than a year old)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Flesh of an older chicken suitable for stewing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("hen" is a kind of...):

chicken; poulet; volaille (the flesh of a chicken used for food)

Credits

 Context examples: 

She returned just in time to join the others as they quitted the house, on an excursion through its more immediate premises; and the rest of the morning was easily whiled away, in lounging round the kitchen garden, examining the bloom upon its walls, and listening to the gardener's lamentations upon blights, in dawdling through the green-house, where the loss of her favourite plants, unwarily exposed, and nipped by the lingering frost, raised the laughter of Charlotte,—and in visiting her poultry-yard, where, in the disappointed hopes of her dairy-maid, by hens forsaking their nests, or being stolen by a fox, or in the rapid decrease of a promising young brood, she found fresh sources of merriment.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I shall get the dairymaid to set them under the first spare hen, and if they come to good I can have them moved to my own house and borrow a coop; and it will be a great delight to me in my lonely hours to attend to them.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

They went to bed quite early and slept soundly until daylight, when they were awakened by the crowing of a green cock that lived in the back yard of the Palace, and the cackling of a hen that had laid a green egg.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

Maybe there were other ptarmigan hens.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Or could it be that there was a prearranged significance to such phrases as ‘fly paper’ and ‘hen pheasant’?

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You know as well as I that it does make a difference with nearly everyone, so don't ruffle up like a dear, motherly hen, when your chickens get pecked by smarter birds.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Understanding how the different mineral nanostructures contribute to strengthening the eggshell could allow scientists to genetically select laying hens based on specific traits, which would put healthier, more resistant eggs into circulation.

(Study paves way for healthier and more robust eggs, University of Granada)

Then came the old cook, who knew that the child had the power of wishing, and stole it away, and he took a hen, and cut it in pieces, and dropped some of its blood on the queen’s apron and on her dress.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

It was the shrill out-cry of the landlady when she found her loss, and the clucking of the hens, which had streamed in through the open door, that first broke in upon the slumbers of the tired wayfarers.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Also, he held White Fang's nose down to the slain hens, and at the same time cuffed him soundly.

(White Fang, by Jack London)