Word.ws English Dictionary

have the world by the balls

have the world by the balls is the alternative form of have the world by the tail.

Meaning of have the world by the tail

Verb

have the world by the tail (third-person singular simple present has the world by the tail, present participle having the world by the tail, simple past and past participle had the world by the tail)

  1. (idiomatic) To possess great influence and opportunity.
    • "Webb thinks he's got the world by the tail for a downhill pull. I'll show him."1919, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 15, in A Man Four-Square

Forms of have the world by the balls

third-person singular presenthas the world by the balls
present participlehaving the world by the balls
past participlehad the world by the balls
pasthad the world by the balls

Questions about have the world by the balls

What is have the world by the balls the alternative form of?
Have the world by the balls is the alternative form of have the world by the tail.

Words near have the world by the balls in the dictionary

  1. have the tiger by the tail
  2. have the time
  3. have the wind up
  4. have the wolf by the ear
  5. have the world by the bag
  6. have the world by the balls
  7. have the world by the neck
  8. have the world by the nuts
  9. have the world by the tail
  10. have the world by the tail on a downhill pull
  11. have the world by the testicles

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: have the world by the balls (page history and authors); have the world by the tail (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.

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Cite this entry: “have the world by the balls.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/have_the_world_by_the_balls. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.