chickenshit

[chik-uh n-shit] /ˈtʃɪk ənˌʃɪt/
noun
1.
boring or annoying details or unimportant tasks.
adjective
2.
obsessed with petty details.
3.
menial or petty.
4.
cowardly or fainthearted.
Origin
1945-50; Americanism
Word Origin and History for chicken-shit

1947 (n.) "contemptible cowardly person;" 1948 (adj.); from chicken + shit (n.).

Slang definitions & phrases for chicken-shit

chicken-shit

modifier
  1. Contemptible; trivial;petty (1930s+)
  2. : a chicken-shit requirement/ chicken-shit new task force (WWI armed forces, but esp WWII)
  3. Cowardly; chicken (1940s+)
noun
  1. The rules, restrictions, rigors, and meanness of a minor and pretentious tyrant, or of a bureaucracy: The new regulations are so many parcels of chicken shit (WWI armed forces, but esp WWII)
  2. An excessive display of authority; a hectoring insistence (WWI armed forces, but esp WWII)
  3. A coward (1940s+)