chickabiddy

English

Noun

chickabiddy (plural chickabiddies)

1. (childish) A chicken or similar bird.
2. Term of endearment for a young child or loved one.
   • 1841, Charles Dickens, chapter LIX, in Barnaby Rudge:

     Why, my dear, who'd murder sich chickabiddies as you?

   • 1909, Francis Hopkinson Smith, The Man In The High-Water Boots‎^[1]:

     "I tried to cheer her up a little with touches of warm tones here and there--all lies--same kind you tell your own chickabiddy when she's blue--but she wouldn't have it and cried straight ahead for four hours until the sun came out; but I was through by that time and waded ashore.