apron strings

See synonyms for apron strings on Thesaurus.com
plural noun
  1. the strings on an apron, used for securing it around one's person.

Idioms about apron strings

  1. tie to someone's apron strings, to make or be dependent on or dominated by someone: He has never married because he's tied to his mother's apron strings.

Origin of apron strings

1
First recorded in 1535–45

Words Nearby apron strings

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use apron strings in a sentence

  • It was living in a state of most reprehensible respectability, and Art was tied to the apron-strings of Morality.

    Humanly Speaking | Samuel McChord Crothers
  • When they broke through the ring of witch burners and snatched Marm Perry off the pyre, her apron strings had burned in two.

    Those Times And These | Irvin S. Cobb
  • He watched the handsome crouching of her back, and the apron-strings curling on the floor.

    Sons and Lovers | David Herbert Lawrence
  • The wires in America scorn the railway apron-strings in which they are led about in this country.

  • My dear Mrs. Alexander, you cant expect a fellow to be always tied to his wifes apron-strings!

    The Wayfarers | Mary Stewart Cutting

Other Idioms and Phrases with apron strings

apron strings

see tied to someone's apron strings.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.