break someone's back

English

Verb

break someone's back (third-person singular simple present breaks someone's back, present participle breaking someone's back, simple past broke someone's back, past participle broken someone's back)

1. (idiomatic) Alternative form of break the back of (overburden).

   Would it break your back to pay me a compliment once in a while?

   • 2003, Jack White (lyrics and music), “Black Math”, in Elephant, performed by The White Stripes:

     My books are sitting at the top of the stack now
     The longer words are really breaking my back now.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see break,‎ back.

See also

• back-breaking
• break one's back

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary