like a chicken with its head cut off

Idioms and Phrases

In a frenzied manner, distractedly, crazily. For example, She ran around the station looking for her lost bag like a chicken with its head cut off . This graphic simile alludes to the fact that the body of a chicken whose head has been cut off sometimes totters about crazily before succumbing.

Example Sentences

And then Art had me—eager, enthusiastic, willing to help but with energy more like a chicken with its head cut off.

From Literature

“Our shape is terrible. We’re not connected from front to back. … We have to fight, but we have to work hard and we have to be smart about how we go about it. We can’t just run around like a chicken with its head cut off.”

From Washington Post

“We were running around like a chicken with its head cut off, throwing stuff into the car. Then we say, ‘Okay, that’s it … we got to go.”

From Seattle Times

If the justices strike the law, Bagley said, "I honestly think the likeliest outcome is that Congress runs around like a chicken with its head cut off, doesn't come to a deal, and we're back to where we were before 2010," when the ACA passed.

From Salon

My mother would say they acting like a chicken with its head cut off.

From Slate

Related Words

• agitated
• anxious
• concerned
• confused
• crazy
• distressed
• frantic
• hysterical
• mad
• perturbed
• tormented
• troubled