ball and chain vs were

ball and chain

noun
  • One's wife, as a symbol of restraint. 

  • A heavy iron ball attached to a prisoner's leg by a chain as a means of restraint. 

  • Anything that restricts one's freedom or opportunities. 

were

noun
  • The collective name for any kind of person that changes into another form under certain conditions, including the werewolf. 

How often have the words ball and chain and were occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )