pullet

noun

1. A young hen, especially one less than a year old.

   “They died not because the Pullets would not feed: but because the Devil foresaw their death, he contrived that abstinence in them.”

   “The dinner-hour being arrived, Black George carried her up a pullet, the squire himself [...] attending the door.”

   “he recommended that the patient [...] should be fed with chicken broth, and suggested that as all the poultry had gone to roost, Maggie would find a fat young pullet an easy capture.”

   “The writer complained that a fox had been the night before and killed three more of his pullets […].”

   ““Mrs. Boast can’t have got all these from one hatching,” [Ma] said. “I do believe there’s not more than two cockerels among them.” “The Boasts have got such a head-start with chickens, likely they’re planning to eat friers this summer,” said Pa. “It may be she took a few cockerels out of this flock, looking on them as meat.” “Yes, and replaced them with pullets that will be layers,” Ma guessed. “It would be Mrs. Boast all over. A more generous woman never lived.””

2. (slang)A spineless person; a coward.
3. (obsolete, slang)A girl or young woman.