noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A person or task which is excessively demanding or punishing. US, idiomatic, vulgar

   "My slave-driving boss expects me to work over the weekend. What a ball-breaker!"

2. 2
   a job or situation that is demanding and arduous and punishing wordnet
3. 3
   a demanding woman who destroys men's confidence wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

ball-bustertaskmaster

Example

More examples

"My slave-driving boss expects me to work over the weekend. What a ball-breaker!"

Etymology

From ball + breaker.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.