phrase🎓 English idiom
a chip off the old block
very like one's parent
What it means
A person who closely resembles one of their parents in character, looks, or behaviour. It is usually a warm, approving way of noting strong family similarity.
Words like “a chip off the old block” are exactly the kind of vocabulary our English vocabulary size test measures — find out how many English words you know.
Examples
- Like his dad, Joe loves fishing; he's a chip off the old block.
- She's a chip off the old block, just as stubborn as her mother.
- Watching him fix the car, I thought, what a chip off the old block.
- Their daughter is a chip off the old block, sharing her father's wit.
Where it comes from
The phrase compares a child to a small chip cut from the same block of wood or stone as the parent; earlier versions like 'chip of the same block' appear from the 1600s.
Related idioms
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