Definition of "hen"

She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.

1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 2, in The Mirror and the Lamp‎

In Tain, north of Inverness, staff detected 11 males and at least seven hens – the highest number there since 2011.

2023 June 17, Severin Carrell, “Dancing Capercaillie bird makes a tentative comeback in Scotland”, in The Guardian‎

As spawning time approaches – autumn or very early winter in most rivers, though in some late-run streams salmon may spawn as late as January or February – the hen's colouration becomes first a matt-pewter and then a drab dark brown-grey. The cock fish, in contrast, begins to gain some brighter colours.

2005, Roderick Sutterby, Malcolm Greenhalgh, “Life in the Nursery”, in Atlantic Salmon: An Illustrated Natural History, Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, page 21

Hen, a woman. A cock and hen club; a club composed of men and women.

1785, Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

Once he had flared up, "If ever a man was henned, it's me!"

1943, McCall's - Volume 71, page 69

Mammy henned the black workers into placing the trunks beside the girls.

1984, Susan C. Feldhake, Love Beyond Surrender, page 52