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pound of flesh

noun

  1. something that is one's legal right but is an unreasonable demand (esp in the phrase to have one's pound of flesh )
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


pound of flesh

1
  1. A phrase from the play The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare . The moneylender Shylock demands the flesh of the “merchant of Venice,” Antonio, under a provision in their contract . Shylock never gets the pound of flesh, however, because the character Portia discovers a point of law that overrides the contract: Shylock is forbidden to shed any blood in getting the flesh from Antonio's body.


pound of flesh

2
  1. Creditors who insist on having their “pound of flesh” are those who cruelly demand the repayment of a debt, no matter how much suffering it will cost the debtor: “The bank will have its pound of flesh; it is going to foreclose on our mortgage and force us to sell our home.” The expression is from The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare .
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Notes

People who cruelly or unreasonably insist on their rights are said to be demanding their “pound of flesh.”
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Word History and Origins

Origin of pound of flesh1

from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (1596), Act IV, scene i
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Idioms and Phrases

A debt whose payment is harshly insisted on, as in The other members of the cartel all want their pound of flesh from Brazil . This expression alludes to the scene in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (4:1) where the moneylender Shylock demands the pound of flesh promised him in payment for a loan, and Portia responds that he may have it but without an ounce of blood (since blood was not promised). [c. 1600]

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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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