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

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

From Time Magazine Archive

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

Yet this was no clinging vine, this little Anita Prince.

From Astounding Stories of Super-Science, March 1930 by Bates, Harry