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.
See also: call, own, soul
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
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.
See also: call, own, soul
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- can't call (one's) soul (one's) own
- can't call soul own
- on call
- Could I have call you?
- Can I have (one) call you?
- call in (one's) marker
- marker
- a wake-up call
- wake-up call
- call time on something