Idioms

like a headless chicken

like a headless chicken

With great haste and in a careless and/or senseless manner. Instead of running around like a headless chicken, make a list of the things you need to finish and then work on them in that order.
See also: chicken, headless, like
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive
The term 'running around like a headless chicken' has its origins in what many farmers know - chooks can indeed continue to run about after their heads are chopped off.
That time she ranted like a headless chicken for a bucket of KFC : Anyone watching Arab Idol at the time was crying with tears over Ahlam's hysterical request for a bucket of KFC, which she wanted delivered now now now to the studio or else she would wage a Twitter war against them.
There would a right royal dust-up with a farming pretender to the throne behaving like a headless chicken. There would be nowhere to place a crown.
"Of course I'm going to make mistakes but I'm not going to chase the ball around like a headless chicken, that's not really me."
He's absconding but still in the UAE and I am the one running around like a headless chicken finding a solution.
With the River Boys still making waves in the Bay, cop Charlie's running around like a headless chicken.
THOM Evans is ready to do anything to get his hands on the ball in Scotland's RBS Six Nations game in Wales today - even if it means running around like a headless chicken.
THOM EVANS is ready to do anything to get his hands on the ball in Scotland's RBS Six Nations game in Wales tomorrow - even if it means running around like a headless chicken!
"I am desperate for someone to talk in a reasoned fashion about climate change, rather than running around like a headless chicken saying we are all going to hell in a handcart" - TV presenter Alan Titchmarsh.
"Gone are the days when I ran around like a headless chicken tackling everything that moved."
He did exactly the kind of thing we're used to: he just ran around like a headless chicken and munched people.
He says: "I thought I'd be like Tom Cruise in the film Cocktail, but I was more like a headless chicken. Jessica keeps giving me a jaw breaker to keep me in line."
A Birmingham solicitor yesterday told a jury he was so overworked and 'running around like a headless chicken' that he forgot to pay pounds 11,000 in stamp duty on behalf of clients.
"Last time in the Premier I was 18 - a rookie running around like a headless chicken, now it's different.
He said: "I saw how he played in the second leg in Paris - like a headless chicken.
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