Definition of "ball-breaker" [ball-breaker]

• A person or task which is excessively demanding or punishing. (noun)

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• "Gambon and Nighy were beautiful together in their spare, knowing banter, the pair of them bobbing agreeably in the turbulent company of the home secretary (the excellent Saskia Reeves) and department ball-breaker Jill Tankard (the outstandingly bossy Judy Davis)."
• "Okay, maybe that model of a superwoman that rose to prominence in the 1980s was a myth think Sigourney Weaver's Wall Street ball-breaker in Working Girl."
• ""In three or four years' time, this will be a ball-breaker.""