can't call one's soul one's own
can't call (one's) soul (one's) own
Spends most of one's time working for others. Now that I've started working overtime four days a week, I really can't call my soul my own. Have fun in residency—it'll be years before you can call your soul your own again. I know he's very proud of how far he's advanced in the company, but he can't call his soul his own anymore!
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
can't call one's soul one's own
To be very much in debt or bondage to another; to have lost one’s independence. This turn of phrase dates from the sixteenth century and has been repeated ever since. In Dickens’s The Old Curiosity Shop (1841, Chapter 4), “She daren’t call her soul her own” is said of Mrs. Quilp, wife of the tyrannical dwarf, Daniel.
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer
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