See chip on one's shoulder on Wiktionary
Download JSON data for chip on one's shoulder meaning in All languages combined (4.7kB)
{
"derived": [
{
"_dis1": "100 0 0",
"word": "chippy"
}
],
"etymology_text": "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.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "chips on one's shoulder",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "chips on one's shoulder"
},
"expansion": "chip on one's shoulder (plural chips on one's shoulder)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"_dis1": "100 0 0",
"word": "thorn in someone's side"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0 0",
"word": "chip off the old block"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0 0",
"english": "from Matthew 7:3",
"word": "mote"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "32 33 35",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1830, The Onondaga Standard, Syracuse NY, 8 December",
"text": "‘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.’"
},
{
"ref": "1855, The Weekly Oregonian",
"text": "Leland, in his last issue, struts out with a chip on his shoulder, and dares Bush to knock it off.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A form of challenge, in the same spirit as a medieval knight throwing down his gauntlet."
],
"id": "en-chip_on_one's_shoulder-en-noun-ZvOA7oSj",
"links": [
[
"challenge",
"challenge"
],
[
"gauntlet",
"gauntlet"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "32 33 35",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1906, Harold MacGrath, chapter 4, in Half A Rogue",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2008 August 28, James Carney, Michael Grunwald, “Understanding John McCain”, in Time",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "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",
"text": "[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.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A habitually combative attitude, usually because of a harboured grievance, sense of inferiority, or having something to prove."
],
"id": "en-chip_on_one's_shoulder-en-noun-GOjkJPha",
"links": [
[
"combative",
"combative"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) A habitually combative attitude, usually because of a harboured grievance, sense of inferiority, or having something to prove."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "10 80 10",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "combative attitude",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Komplex"
},
{
"_dis1": "10 80 10",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "combative attitude",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "gewisse Abneigung"
},
{
"_dis1": "10 80 10",
"code": "mk",
"lang": "Macedonian",
"roman": "kompleks",
"sense": "combative attitude",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "комплекс"
},
{
"_dis1": "10 80 10",
"code": "sh",
"lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
"sense": "combative attitude",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "kompleks"
}
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "32 33 35",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A tendency to take offence quickly."
],
"id": "en-chip_on_one's_shoulder-en-noun-jRmdDrgY",
"links": [
[
"offence",
"offence"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) A tendency to take offence quickly."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-chip on one's shoulder.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/6e/En-au-chip_on_one%27s_shoulder.ogg/En-au-chip_on_one%27s_shoulder.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/En-au-chip_on_one%27s_shoulder.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "chip on one's shoulder"
}
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English terms with audio links"
],
"derived": [
{
"word": "chippy"
}
],
"etymology_text": "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.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "chips on one's shoulder",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "chips on one's shoulder"
},
"expansion": "chip on one's shoulder (plural chips on one's shoulder)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "thorn in someone's side"
},
{
"word": "chip off the old block"
},
{
"english": "from Matthew 7:3",
"word": "mote"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"Quotation templates to be cleaned"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1830, The Onondaga Standard, Syracuse NY, 8 December",
"text": "‘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.’"
},
{
"ref": "1855, The Weekly Oregonian",
"text": "Leland, in his last issue, struts out with a chip on his shoulder, and dares Bush to knock it off.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A form of challenge, in the same spirit as a medieval knight throwing down his gauntlet."
],
"links": [
[
"challenge",
"challenge"
],
[
"gauntlet",
"gauntlet"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations",
"Quotation templates to be cleaned"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1906, Harold MacGrath, chapter 4, in Half A Rogue",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2008 August 28, James Carney, Michael Grunwald, “Understanding John McCain”, in Time",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "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",
"text": "[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.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A habitually combative attitude, usually because of a harboured grievance, sense of inferiority, or having something to prove."
],
"links": [
[
"combative",
"combative"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) A habitually combative attitude, usually because of a harboured grievance, sense of inferiority, or having something to prove."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English idioms"
],
"glosses": [
"A tendency to take offence quickly."
],
"links": [
[
"offence",
"offence"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) A tendency to take offence quickly."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-chip on one's shoulder.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/6e/En-au-chip_on_one%27s_shoulder.ogg/En-au-chip_on_one%27s_shoulder.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/En-au-chip_on_one%27s_shoulder.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "combative attitude",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Komplex"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "combative attitude",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "gewisse Abneigung"
},
{
"code": "mk",
"lang": "Macedonian",
"roman": "kompleks",
"sense": "combative attitude",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "комплекс"
},
{
"code": "sh",
"lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
"sense": "combative attitude",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "kompleks"
}
],
"word": "chip on one's shoulder"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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