From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishget/take/demand etc your pound of fleshget/take/demand etc your pound of fleshSUFFERto get the full amount of work, money etc that someone owes you, even though it makes them suffer and you do not really need it. The phrase comes from Shylock, a character in the play The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. He is a Jewish money-lender who lends money to Antonio. When Antonio is unable to pay the money back, Shylock says he has the right to cut a pound of flesh from Antonio’s body. → pound
Examples from the Corpus
get/take/demand etc your pound of flesh• The Government gets its pound of flesh, doesn't it. 