no spring chicken
slang No longer young or youthful. (A "spring chicken" refers to a young chicken.) I'm no spring chicken, so I can't stay out till 2 AM drinking and dancing anymore.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
no spring chicken
Fig. a person well past youth; an old person. That actress is no spring chicken, but she does a pretty good job of playing a twenty-year-old girl. Jane: How old do you think Robert is? Jill: Well, he's certainly no spring chicken.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
no spring chicken
No longer a young person, as in Sally's no spring chicken, but she plays a fine game of tennis. This unflattering expression, often applied to women, has been used since the early 1700s, although spring was omitted from the earliest citation (1711).
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
no spring chicken
or not a spring chicken
If someone is no spring chicken or is not a spring chicken, they are no longer young. At 51, she's certainly no spring chicken. At 85, he's not a spring chicken, but Enrico Cuccia is busier than ever. Note: If you describe someone as a spring chicken, you mean that they are young. By comparison with the others, DelGuercio is a spring chicken. Note: A spring chicken was a young chicken that was ready to be eaten in the spring time, as opposed to an older bird.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
no (spring) chicken
not a young person. euphemistic 2005 Molly Hart Road to Ruination She must've been in at least her mid-forties, she was no spring chicken, but she looked good for her age.
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