What Does Chip on Your Shoulder Mean Chip on your shoulder What'southward the meaning of the phrase 'Chip on your shoulder'? A 'scrap on your shoulder' is a perceived grievance or sense of inferiority. What'south the origin of the phrase 'Bit on your shoulder'? There are several possible explanations of how a 'chip on your shoulder' originated, not least because the word chip has several meanings. Nosotros aren't concerned here near the foodstuff that the English call chips and the Americans phone call chips, not the foodstuff that the Americans call chips and the English language call crisps. The pregnant that we are concerned with here is an before ane, namely 'a small-scale piece of wood, every bit might be chopped, or chipped, from a larger cake'. The phrase 'a chip on one'due south shoulder' is reported as originating w