clinging vine

American  

noun

Informal.

1. a person who behaves in a helpless and dependent manner in relationships with others.

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clinging vine British  

noun

1. informal a woman who displays excessive emotional dependence on a man

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clinging vine Idioms  

1. An overly dependent person, as in A clinging vine since her marriage, she's never made a decision on her own. Nearly always applied to a woman (or wife), this metaphor for a climbing plant today criticizes dependency rather than, as in former times, praising the vine's fruitfulness.

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Etymology

Origin of clinging vine

An Americanism dating back to 1960–65

Example Sentences

He checked a clinging vine with white flowers.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 27, 2015

It was all so odd that Hostess Esther Williams, an athletic sort and no clinging vine, was moved to comment on one male's observation: "I don't believe he believes a word that he's saying."

From Time Magazine Archive

But Yukiko is a clinging vine who almost prefers clinging to her family.

From Time Magazine Archive

But Marta was neither a pecking hen nor a clinging vine.

From Time Magazine Archive

And yet the clinging vine Must fall, when falls the sturdy tree that taught her Round him in loving tenderness to twine.

From Translations of Shakuntala and Other Works by Kalidasa