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pound of flesh

   Also found in: Medical, Legal, Idioms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.02 sec.
pound of flesh
n. pl. pounds of flesh
A debt harshly insisted upon.

[From Antonio's debt to Shylock in The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare.]

pound of flesh
n
something that is one's legal right but is an unreasonable demand (esp in the phrase to have one's pound of flesh)
[from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (1596), Act IV, scene i]


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He wants Antonio's life, and well he knows if a pound of flesh be cut from this poor merchant's breast he must die.
I'll admit that if Monty were to present himself in London to-morrow and demand his full pound of flesh we should be ruined, but he isn't going to do it.
I have seen him exact his pound of flesh, even at the cost of ruin, from a boy.
 
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