take one's ball and go home
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To quit in a tantrum, taking away what others want to use
Literally: a child taking their ball away from a game
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
He took his ball and went home when they wouldn't let him be team captain
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “take one's ball and go home” mean?
To quit in a tantrum, taking away what others want to use Literally: a child taking their ball away from a game
Is “take one's ball and go home” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.