What does ‘a chip on your shoulder’ mean?
To “a chip on your shoulder” means to a lasting grievance that makes someone easily offended. Brewer's records the American schoolboy custom of placing a chip of wood on the shoulder and daring another to knock it off as a challenge to fight; hence the transferred sense.
Origin
- Brewer's records the American schoolboy custom of placing a chip of wood on the shoulder and daring another to knock it off as a challenge to fight; hence the transferred sense.
How to use it
- Describes touchy, defensive behaviour rooted in past hurt.
- Example: He's had a chip on his shoulder since he was passed over.
Source:
Last verified: 2026-07-18
- Definitions and origins are drawn from public-domain reference works, primarily Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898), with modern usage notes clearly marked.