See ball and chain in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
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"word": "shackle"
},
{
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"ref": "1964, “The House of the Rising Sun”, performed by The Animals:",
"text": "Well, I got one foot on the platform / The other foot on the train / I'm goin' back to New Orleans / To wear that ball and chain",
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},
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"ref": "1990, Mike Ness, “Ball and Chain”, performed by Social Distortion:",
"text": "Take away this ball and chain",
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}
],
"glosses": [
"A heavy iron ball attached to a prisoner's leg by a chain as a means of restraint."
],
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{
"word": "fetter"
},
{
"word": "restraint"
}
],
"id": "en-ball_and_chain-en-noun-Zz1gaOqN",
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{
"_dis1": "64 34 2",
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"lang_code": "fr",
"sense": "means of restraint",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "boulet"
},
{
"_dis1": "64 34 2",
"code": "sh",
"lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
"lang_code": "sh",
"sense": "means of restraint",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"plural"
],
"word": "bukagije"
},
{
"_dis1": "64 34 2",
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"lang_code": "tr",
"sense": "means of restraint",
"word": "pranga"
},
{
"_dis1": "64 34 2",
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"lang_code": "tr",
"sense": "means of restraint",
"word": "bukağı"
}
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25,
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"text": "I'll have to ask the old ball and chain and get back to you.",
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"glosses": [
"One's spouse, especially a wife, as a symbol of restraint."
],
"id": "en-ball_and_chain-en-noun-mtUNFFkF",
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"(slang, derogatory) One's spouse, especially a wife, as a symbol of restraint."
],
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"ref": "2011, John Bradley, Cadbury's Purple Reign: The Story Behind Chocolate's Best-Loved Brand:",
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"type": "quotation"
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"ref": "2025 May 30, Matteo Wong, “OpenAI Can Stop Pretending”, in The Atlantic:",
"text": "Now 2015 feels like a very long time ago, and the charitable origins have turned into a ball and chain for OpenAI.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Anything that restricts one's freedom or opportunities."
],
"id": "en-ball_and_chain-en-noun-ZQ9qdKyM",
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"restrict",
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],
[
"freedom",
"freedom"
],
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"opportunities",
"opportunity"
]
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"(figurative) Anything that restricts one's freedom or opportunities."
],
"tags": [
"figuratively"
]
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"tags": [
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],
"word": "ball and chain"
}
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},
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15,
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"A heavy iron ball attached to a prisoner's leg by a chain as a means of restraint."
],
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"text": "I'll have to ask the old ball and chain and get back to you.",
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"One's spouse, especially a wife, as a symbol of restraint."
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"(slang, derogatory) One's spouse, especially a wife, as a symbol of restraint."
],
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"word": "other half"
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{
"word": "better half"
}
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"ref": "2011, John Bradley, Cadbury's Purple Reign: The Story Behind Chocolate's Best-Loved Brand:",
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"type": "quotation"
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88,
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"ref": "2025 May 30, Matteo Wong, “OpenAI Can Stop Pretending”, in The Atlantic:",
"text": "Now 2015 feels like a very long time ago, and the charitable origins have turned into a ball and chain for OpenAI.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Anything that restricts one's freedom or opportunities."
],
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"freedom",
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],
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"opportunities",
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"(figurative) Anything that restricts one's freedom or opportunities."
],
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"translations": [
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"lang_code": "fr",
"sense": "means of restraint",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "boulet"
},
{
"code": "sh",
"lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
"lang_code": "sh",
"sense": "means of restraint",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"plural"
],
"word": "bukagije"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"lang_code": "tr",
"sense": "means of restraint",
"word": "pranga"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"lang_code": "tr",
"sense": "means of restraint",
"word": "bukağı"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Kimitoön"
],
"word": "ball and chain"
}
Download raw JSONL data for ball and chain meaning in English (4.3kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (ccec6f1 and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.