The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 7 letter word SCAREDY
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
S
C
A
R
E
D
Y
More clues leading to the result SCAREDY
- Was troubled that extremely scrawny pet's eating chicken
- Timid type minded by youth leader breaking into jazz
- Coward fixing day-care cost without love
- Cowards upset as cadets cry
- Vacant sty pens worried pet chicken
- Timorous people cry as cadets in trouble
- Wimp out of beating up Rye cads with Kitty
- Coward is cast ready to tremble about first sign of conflict
- Cry as cadet condemned coward
- Daughter tucked in to wings of turkey carcase, mistaken for chicken
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "chicken" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case chicken = scaredy.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.