madder than a wet hen

madder than a wet hen pronunciation

/MAD-er thuhn uh WET hen/

Meaning

Means somebody is furious, not just a little put out. Picture a chicken that got dunked or caught in a rainstorm: feathers stuck flat, wings flapping, squawking like the world owes her an apology. Out on the farm or at the feed store, that is how folks size up a real temper fit.

How folks use it

• “Daddy was madder than a wet hen when he found that dent in the truck.”
• “She got madder than a wet hen after them boys tracked mud through the kitchen.”

Origin and etymology

American talk from the early 1800s. "Mad as a wet hen" shows up in print by 1823, and "madder than a wet hen" follows soon after. Rural Southern and Appalachian speakers kept it alive because farm people know how a soaked hen acts. A popular story says farmers dunked broody hens in cold water to break them off sitting on eggs, but that link is folklore more than proven fact. Either way, a wet chicken looks personally offended.

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