get by the balls
get by the balls verb: to have complete control over someone, especially of a woman abusing a man's infatuation with her.
Verb
get by the balls (third-person singular simple present gets by the balls, present participle getting by the balls, simple past got by the balls, past participle (UK) got by the balls or (US) gotten by the balls)
- To have complete control over someone, especially of a woman abusing a man's infatuation with her.
- Too bad she's got you by the balls.1974, Rolling Stones, Short And Curlies
- If you’ve got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.
- Synonyms:
- have by the short and curlies
Synonyms of get by the balls
- have by the short and curlies
Forms of get by the balls
| third-person singular present | gets by the balls |
|---|---|
| present participle | getting by the balls |
| past | got by the balls |
| past participle UK | got by the balls |
| past participle US | gotten by the balls |
Origin of get by the balls
See balls (“testicles”).
Questions about get by the balls
- What does get by the balls mean?
- Get by the balls means to have complete control over someone, especially of a woman abusing a man's infatuation with her.
- What part of speech is get by the balls?
- Get by the balls is a verb.
- What is the past tense of get by the balls?
- The past tense of get by the balls is got by the balls.
Words near get by the balls in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: get by the balls (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-get by the balls.ogg.
Cite this entry: “get by the balls.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/get_by_the_balls. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.