swaddling clothes
Americanplural noun
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clothes consisting of long, narrow strips of cloth for swaddling an infant.
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long garments for an infant.
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the period of infancy or immaturity, as of a person, or incipience, as of a thing.
Nuclear energy is still in its swaddling clothes.
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rigid supervision or restriction of actions or movements, as of the immature.
new nations that are freeing themselves of their swaddling clothes.
plural noun
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long strips of linen or other cloth formerly wrapped round a newly born baby
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restrictions or supervision imposed on the immature
Etymology
Origin of swaddling clothes
First recorded in 1525–35
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Only on Wednesday, at last, did the Duke and Duchess present their firstborn, wrapped in swaddling clothes, to the prying gaze of the world.
From The New Yorker ● May 9, 2019
We climb up one more floor to the Verone, an upscale, sit-down-only cafe on a roof deck, in a space that was once used for drying swaddling clothes.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 29, 2016
Nine out of 10 infants in North America are swaddled in the first six months of life, and the demand for swaddling clothes soared by 61% in the UK between 2010 and 2011.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 22, 2013
It means the "swaddling clothes" of a baby industry.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2013
And'it was across the Tumblestone that they came home now, though the boy wore plate and mail in place of swaddling clothes.
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
