Chicken Little

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026

Chick′en Lit′tle, 

1. a person who constantly warns that a calamity is imminent;
   a vociferous pessimist:
   The Chicken Littles are warning that the stock market will collapse.

• from a character in nursery tales (also known as Henny Penny, Chicken-Diddle, or Chicken-Licken) who, when struck on the head by an object from above, panics and believes that the sky is falling