Word.ws English Dictionary

chip on one's shoulder

chip on one's shoulder noun: a form of challenge, in the same spirit as a medieval knight throwing down his gauntlet.

Noun

chip on one's shoulder (plural chips on one's shoulder)

  1. A form of challenge, in the same spirit as a medieval knight throwing down his gauntlet.
    • ‘Oh! if I only could get him to knock a chip off my shoulder, and so get round the law, I would give him one of the soundest thrashings he ever had.’1830, The Onondaga Standard, Syracuse NY, 8 December
    • Leland, in his last issue, struts out with a chip on his shoulder, and dares Bush to knock it off.1855, The Weekly Oregonian
  2. (idiomatic) A habitually combative attitude, usually because of a harbored grievance, a sense of inferiority, or a desire to prove something.
    • The city of Herculaneum […] held its neighbors in hearty contempt, like the youth who has suddenly found his man's strength, and parades round with a chip on his shoulder.1906, Harold MacGrath, chapter 4, in Half A Rogue
    • People are staying home / When they got chips on their shoulder2019 [1972], Willie Hutch, Kathy Wakefield, “Try It, You’ll Like it”, in You're the Man, performed by Marvin Gaye
  3. (idiomatic) A tendency to take offence quickly.

chip on one's shoulder meaning in Thai

chip on one's shoulder in Thai

combative attitude
มีปมด้อย mii-bpom-dɔ̂i

Forms of chip on one's shoulder

pluralchips on one's shoulder

Origin of chip on one's shoulder

The saying originated during the 19th century in the United States, where people wanting a physical fight would carry a chip of wood on their shoulder, daring others to knock it off.

Questions about chip on one's shoulder

What does chip on one's shoulder mean?
Chip on one's shoulder means a form of challenge, in the same spirit as a medieval knight throwing down his gauntlet.
What is chip on one's shoulder in Thai?
Chip on one's shoulder in Thai is มีปมด้อย (mii-bpom-dɔ̂i). See Chip on one's shoulder meaning in Thai.
What part of speech is chip on one's shoulder?
Chip on one's shoulder is a noun.
What is the plural of chip on one's shoulder?
The plural of chip on one's shoulder is chips on one's shoulder.

Words near chip on one's shoulder in the dictionary

  1. chip of the old block
  2. chip of the same block
  3. chip off the block
  4. chip off the old block
  5. chip off the same block
  6. chip on one's shoulder
  7. chip pan
  8. chip pans
  9. chip scanner
  10. chip scanners
  11. chip shooter

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chip on one's shoulder (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-chip on one's shoulder.ogg.

Cite this entry: “chip on one's shoulder.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chip_on_one%27s_shoulder. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.