chip on one's shoulder
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.92 in modern English
29
Scrabble Score
18
Letters
2
Syllables
12
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A habitually combative attitude, usually because of a harbored grievance, a sense of inferiority, or a desire to prove something.
noun
A tendency to take offence quickly.
Example Sentences
- "‘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.’"
- "Leland, in his last issue, struts out with a chip on his shoulder, and dares Bush to knock it off."
- "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."
- "People are staying home / When they got chips on their shoulder"
- "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."
- "[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."
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.