Chich'i-Vache (3 syl.), a monster that fed only on good women. The word means the "sorry cow." It was all skin and bone, because its food was so extremely scarce. (See BYCORN.)
O noble wyvês, full of heigh prudence,
Let noon humilitie your tongês nayle.,
Lest Chichi-Vache you swalwe in her entraile.
Chaucer,
Canterbury Tales
("Clerk's Tale," 1388).
Chick (Mr.), brother-in-law of Mr. Dombey; a stout gentleman, with a tendency to whistle and hum airs at inopportune moments. Mr. Chick is somewhat henpecked; but in the matrimonial squalls, though apparently beaten, he not unfrequently rises up the superior and gets his own way.
Louisa Chick, Mr. Dombey's married sister. She is of a snappish temper, but dresses in the most juvenile style, and is persuaded that anything can be accomplished if persons will only "make an effort."—C. Dickens, Dombey and Son (1846).
Chicken (The), Michael Angelo Taylor, barrister, so called because in his maiden speech, 1785, he said, "I deliver this opinion with great deference, being but a chicken in the profession of the law."