The English language has many chicken idioms and expressions. And, for the most part, none of them represent anything good.

For example, a chicken can describe someone who is scared or afraid. Children commonly tease each other about being chicken. They often use actual chicken noises to make the teasing even more descriptive.

The phrasal verb chicken out has a similar meaning. If you “chicken out,” you decide not to do something because you are too scared.

For example, let’s say you and your friends are at a party. They dare you to go on stage and sing with the band that is playing. “No problem,” you say. You’re not chicken, you tell yourself. But as you walk toward the stage, sweat starts dripping down your back. Your heart beats faster. Without realizing it, you are backing away from the stage and running toward the restroom.

You have chickened out.

There are other ways in English to insult someone using chicken expressions.

If you are running around like a chicken with its head cut off you are acting in a crazy way. You don’t seem in control of your mind or body. This comes from the gruesome fact that sometimes when a chicken’s head is cut off, its body can still run around before it dies.

You can use this expression in many situations. To use another party example, let’s say you are planning a big party for a friend. You are in charge of inviting guests, choosing the food and drinks, decorations and entertainment. So, you are in charge of everything! You have a lot to do.

So, you ask your best friend, Christopher, to help. But he’s not a big help. All he can think about is who he’s inviting to the party. You see, his girlfriend is out of town. So, he invites a woman he’s been dating secretly, Liza. You warn him that this could backfire. But he doesn’t care.

The day of the party comes. And things start going wrong almost immediately.

The florist sends funeral flowers instead of the bright party flowers you ordered. The food you ordered is frozen and will not be ready for at least another day. The drinks are warm because you don’t have enough ice. And the lead singer of the band is sick.

You run around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to fix all the problems. When the food delivery man hands you a bill for the food no one can eat yet, you tell him you can’t read it. His handwriting is like chicken scratch. If someone is a really messy writer, you can compare their handwriting to the markings that chickens make on the ground with their feet -- we call that chicken scratch.

Finally, you calm down.

You ask a friend to buy more ice for you. You ask another friend to order some pizzas. And then you ask your Uncle Fred to sing with the rock band. He’s older than they are, but he still sings really well.

“Well, I’m no spring chicken,” he says, “but I’ll do my best!”

If someone is old, we can say they are no spring chicken. This expression is informal and could be insulting. So, use it with care. Most importantly, we always use this expression in the negative. You would not call someone who is young “a spring chicken.”

This leads us to another chicken idiom. This one is not an insult, but it does describe a bad situation.

What happens when your chickens come home to roost?

First, what is to roost? To roost means to settle down for rest or sleep. We usually use it when talking about birds. Chickens usually return to their homes to rest. When we say your chickens have come home to roost, we are saying that your past wrongdoings have returned to negatively affect you. In this expression, the chickens represent the things that you did wrong in your past.

For this idiom, let’s use your best friend Christopher. One of his “chickens” is that he’s been secretly dating Liza. In fact, this “chicken” comes to the party. And so does his girlfriend -- the girlfriend he thought was out of town. She sees Christopher and Liza dancing closely together and demands to know what is going on!

His girlfriend yells at him. Then Liza yells at him. Then they both yell at him. It’s awful. You could say to Christopher, “Well, I warned you. And now your chickens have come home to roost!”

But you don’t say this. He’s your friend. And nobody likes to hear, “I told you so.”

Like we said earlier, we usually use “chicken” in a negative way -- well, except with this last example. You may have heard people ask: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

We ask this question when talking about a cause-and-effect relationship between two things where we don’t know which happened first. What is the cause and what is the effect?

We often shorten it to simply chicken-and-egg. You can call something a chicken-and-egg situation or a chicken-and-egg problem.

Here is how to use it. Let’s say you don’t like math. You don’t do very well in the subject at school. You could say, it’s a chicken-and-egg kind of thing. You don’t know which came first. Do you dislike math because you’re not good at it? Or are not good at math because you don’t like it?

This is a classic chicken-and-egg situation.

So, back to the party. People are enjoying the pizza, the drinks are cold and Uncle Fred is rocking out with the band. People are even having fun taking their picture with the “R.I.P.” ribbons in the funeral flowers. Everyone is having a good time.

Well, everyone but Christopher. He’s still busy dealing with his roosting chickens.

That’s the end of this Words and Their Stories.

What does the chicken represent in your language?

Do they represent good things, bad or both? Let us know in the Comments Section!

I’m Jonathan Evans …

… and I’m Anna Matteo.

And now, it's time for the VOA Learning English program Words and Their Stories.In some parts of the world, April is a time of thunderstorms and lots of rain. In the U.S. we even have a rhyme to describe it: April showers bring May flowers.

>>>  American vs. British English

This rhyme does not simply describe a weather event. It reminds us that even something bad or inconvenient -- in this case, rain -- can bring something good -- in this case, flowers!

We will talk about flowers expressions another time. Today, let's talk about rain.

Even though rain is necessary for nature, many expressions use rain to represent troubles, loneliness or hard times.

To rain on someone's parade is to question their positive attitude or to ruin their good time. Someone who rains on another person's "parade" is usually trying to introduce a note of caution or practical advice. This person may not mean to make the other person feel bad, but raining on someone's parade can really kill a good mood.

By the way, this is a fixed expression. So, you shouldn't say, "Don't rain on my picnic!" or "Don't rain on my baseball game!" People will have no idea what you're talking about.

In the musical "Funny Girl," Barbara Streisand's character just wants to live her life in her way. She doesn't want others to stop her from trying to achieve her dreams. So, she warns people, "Don't rain on my parade."

No one has a perfectly happy life all the time. A poetic way to express that thought is to say into each life a little rain must fall.

Here is singer Ella Fitzgerald complaining that she is not getting more than her fair share of suffering. Too many bad things are happening in her life. Too much rain!

When it rains, it pours is another popular expression. This means when one bad thing happens, many other things often follow. Now, there isn't any science to support this. Perhaps it just feels that way when it's happening to you.

This is too good of an expression not to be in a country song. Merle Haggard uses it this way:

Some people are so happy, so excited or so in love that they don't let anything -- including the weather -- stop them from doing something.

Come rain or come shine means you are not going to let anything stop you. Many people have sang the Johnny Mercer song "Come Rain or Come Shine." Here, it is Ray Charles who tells his love that he will love her no matter what.

Sometimes, though, you can't do what you want come rain or shine. Sometimes rain does affect your plans.

Let's say you plan a big outdoor party for all your friends. Unfortunately, on the day of the party, it rains cats and dogs – in other words, it rains really heavily. You will have to reschedule. Your guests can take a rain check and come back another time.

"Rain check" comes from the early days of baseball. If a baseball game was canceled because of rain, attendees were given a piece of paper -- a rain check -- allowing them to come back on a different day to see the game.

So, when you take a rain check on something you will have to wait before you can do it.

In comparison, when you save something for a rainy day, you choose to put it safely away for future use. Usually we use this expression for saving money. But you can save anything for a rainy day.

Up until now, all these rain expressions use the wet weather as a hardship, sadness, inconvenience or difficulty that a person must overcome.

One exception is the expression right as rain. If something is "right as rain" it is perfectly fine.

For example, let's say you hurt your back playing sports. You could tell your friends not too worry and that you'll be right as rain in a week or two. Some word experts say that "rain" is used in this expression simply for its "r" sound. "Right" and "rain" sound good together.

And that brings us to the end of this program. But come rain or shine, we will be back next week with another Words and Their Stories.

Let us know if you have any rain expressions in your language in the Comments Section.

I'm Anna Matteo.