Ball And Chain Phrase

Take away this ball and chain.

Ball and chain phrase. Originally a ball and chain referred to a heavy metal ball attached by a chain to the leg of a prisoner or convict to prevent their escape. What s the origin of the phrase ball and chain. The idea that something is tethering them to the spot and stopping them from fully living their life the way that they please. The allusion being to the presumption that a man s wife held him back from doing the things he really wanted to.

What does the idiom ball and chain mean. Typically said of a wife or girlfriend. It is what a married man might at one time have called his wife. Ball and chain unknown someone or something that s keeping you from doing what you really want to do.

The term has latterly been used with wry misogynistic humour to refer to a wife. It suggests that wives exercise control over their husbands in the way that many years ago prisoners were forced to drag a heavy ball attached to an ankle by a piece of chain. This of course refers back to the actual ball and chain which was a heavy metal ball secured to a prisoner s leg by means of a chain and manacle. Origin of this idiom.

Also sublime and social distortion both have songs by the title ball and chain though the songs are different from eachother. The phrase ball and chain refers to something that is holding a person back in their life.