chickenshit

wwii troop slang for military bureaucratic bullsh-t. the word implies that the regulations in question are so silly and trifling that they don’t measure up to the level of bullsh-t. subsequently, the word came to be merely an intensification of the epithet chicken.
in life and death matters, soldiers relied on their common sense and ignored the chickensh-t regulations their superiors foisted upon them whenever possible.
coward… cowardly… wimp… wimpy
that punk won’t fight because he’s a little chicken sh-t
according to paul fussel’s book “wartime,” “chickensh-t refers to behavior that makes military life worse than it need be: petty har-ssment of the weak by the strong; open scrimmage for power and authority and prestige; sadism thinly disguised as necessary discipline; a constant ‘paying off of old scores’; and insistence on the letter rather than the spirit of ordinances. chickensh-t is so called–instead of horse- or bull- or elephant sh-t–because it is small-minded and ign-ble and takes the trivial seriously.”

this definition is cited by at least two books by steven e. ambrose, “citizen soldiers” and “band of brothers.”
soldier 1: i got fined $25 this morning!

soldier 2: what for?

soldier 1: some rear-echelon type saw me and said that i wasn’t maintaing a professional appearance. i can’t help it that we’ve been living in foxholes for the last week and because of the snipers, i can’t shave.

soldier 2: that’s chickensh-t.
name for people who are cowardly
that chickensh-t can’t kill a fly.
1) petty regulations that don’t make it to the level of bullsh-t. a favorite purview of martinets and high-handed bureaucrats.

2) afraid; cringing; cowardly; reluctant to get off one’s -ss and put up.

3) unintelligible verbiage, scrawl, or scritch-scratch.
the new co’s chickensh-t was driving the first sergeant batsh-t; he had bigger things to worry about than snapping salutes from a quarter-mile away, with the enemy waiting just over the hill.

he was too chickensh-t to go down to the cellar and deal with leatherface.

i can’t make heads or tails out of this chickensh-t they added to the agreement. tell them to clarify it so we know we’re eye-to-eye.
superfluous, unnecessary, petty, trivial, insignificant, needless, uncalled-for…. (:>))
take you chicken sh-t job with your chicken sh-t ideas and shove it up your chicken sh-t b-tt….
a coward, an unmanly being,a man without t-st-cl-s,a p-ssy
mark:james come to the senior lot and cut with us.
james:bro, i cant, i dont want to walk p-ssed the security gaurd.
mark:chickensh-t