Dictionary

chip on one's shoulder en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

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.

Meanings

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.
   • People are staying home / When they got chips on their shoulder 2019 [1972], Willie Hutch, Kathy Wakefield, “Try It, You’ll Like it”, in You're the Man, performed by Marvin Gaye:
   • 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:
   • The young John McCain was a constant breaker of rules, a brawler and a slob, an undersize punk with an oversize chip on his shoulder. 2008 August 28, James Carney, Michael Grunwald, “Understanding John McCain”, in Time:
   • [O]ne minute this "Jihadi John" was struggling to get by, and get accepted, in drizzly England, unemployed with a mortgage to pay and a chip on his shoulder, and the next he stands in brilliant Levantine sunlight, where everything is clear and etched, at the vanguard of some Sunni Risorgimento intent on subjecting the world to its murderous brand of Wahhabi Islam. 2014 November 17, Roger Cohen, “The horror! The horror! The trauma of ISIS [print version: International New York Times, 18 November 2014, p. 9]”, in The New York Times:
3. (idiomatic) A tendency to take offence quickly.

Forms

Relateds

chippy · chip off the old block · thorn in someone's side · mote

Translations (5)

th มีปมด้อย (combative attitude) · de Komplex (combative attitude) · de gewisse Abneigung (combative attitude) · sh kompleks (combative attitude) · mk комплекс (combative attitude)