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) To exhaust a person's means or resources; to constitute more than they are reasonably able to do.

   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