A young chicken suitable for broiling or frying, or the compartment of an oven that produces direct high heat for cooking.
From 'broil' + -er suffix. First applied to chickens in the 1800s, then to the oven compartment in the early 1900s as electric cooking technology developed.
Broiler chickens are so specifically bred for fast growth and meat that they're completely different birds from their ancestors—they represent one of agriculture's most extreme selective breeding examples.
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