chink in the armor

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

A weakness or vulnerability in someone's defenses

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

một điểm yếu hoặc dễ bị tổn thương

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: a crack in metal armor
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The team's lack of experience was a chink in their armor

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “chink in the armor” mean?

A weakness or vulnerability in someone's defenses Literally: a crack in metal armor

Is “chink in the armor” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.