Word.ws English Dictionary

chips on one's shoulder

chips on one's shoulder is the plural of chip on one's shoulder.

Meaning of chip on one's shoulder

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
  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
  3. (idiomatic) A tendency to take offence quickly.

Questions about chips on one's shoulder

What is chips on one's shoulder the plural of?
Chips on one's shoulder is the plural of chip on one's shoulder.

Words near chips on one's shoulder in the dictionary

  1. chips of old blocks
  2. chips of the old block
  3. chips off old blocks
  4. chips off the block
  5. chips off the old block
  6. chips on one's shoulder
  7. chips up
  8. chips with everything
  9. chips-with-everything
  10. chipseal
  11. chipsealed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chips on one's shoulder (page history and authors); 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.

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