spring chicken
Someone still green
A spring chicken is a young chicken, tender enough for frying or broiling.
The phrase appears almost exclusively in the negative: She's no spring chicken means she's no longer young.
The expression is mildly dismissive but often affectionate or self-deprecating: I'm no spring chicken, but I can still keep up.
Not yet mature
- fresh-facedYouthfully wholesome in appearance
- juvenileYoung person or animal
- adolescentPerson in puberty
- buddingDeveloping from an outgrowth
fledgling · immature · whippersnapper · youngster · stripling · youth · teenage · callow
young
Not yet mature
- fresh-facedYouthfully wholesome in appearance
- juvenileYoung person or animal
- adolescentPerson in puberty
budding · fledgling · immature · whippersnapper · youngster · stripling · youth · teenage · callow · green
novice
Inexperienced newcomer to field
tyro · fledgling · apprentice · newbie · amateur · unseasoned · naive · untrained · raw · wet behind the ears
- youthchild, adolescents, kid, coming-of-age, teenagers
- age slanggeezer, codger, coot, old fart, old timer
- bird expressionsearly bird, birdbrain, bird brain, lovebirds, jailbird
- youth sayingsfountain of youth, salad days, tender age, young at heart, forever young
- chicken typesbroiler, Cornish hen, fryer, roaster, pullet
- young chickenschick, peep, hatchling, pullet, cockerel
spring chickenold-timer
Long-tenured person
geezer · no spring chicken · old fogey · codger · old coot
spring chickenold hand
Experienced person
veteran · seasoned pro · old salt · old stager · battle-scarred
spring, chicken, springs, chickens, sprung, springy, springiness, springboard, springtime