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ball and chain
noun
- a heavy iron ball fastened by a chain to a prisoner's leg.
- a burdensome restraint:
The steady accumulation of small debts was a ball and chain to his progress.
- Facetious Slang: Often Offensive. a person's spouse or romantic partner, especially a female.
ball and chain
noun
- (formerly) a heavy iron ball attached to a chain and fastened to a prisoner
- a heavy restraint
- slang.a wife
Sensitive Note
Word History and Origins
Origin of ball and chain1
Idioms and Phrases
A burden and restraint, as in Karen regarded her job as a ball and chain, but she needed the money . The term, dating from the early 1800s, alludes to chaining a heavy iron ball to a prisoner's leg. Later it was transferred to other kinds of restraining burden.Example Sentences
The former prime minister trades bunga-bunga for ball-and-chain as he announces engagement to 27-year-old Francesca Pascale.
What a ghastly prison marriage was, he thought, a thing as hostile to the free human spirit as an iron ball-and-chain.
Yesterday the President remitted the sentence of a poor lad, sentenced to ball-and-chain for six months, for cowardice, etc.
I say your old rag of a Constitution is a ball-and-chain on your national leg.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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