leading strings

American  

[lee-ding] / ˈli dɪŋ /

plural noun

1. strings for leading and supporting a child learning to walk.

2. excessively restraining guidance.

   His parents tried to keep him in leading strings, but he finally married and moved away.

---

Etymology

Origin of leading strings

First recorded in 1670–80

Example Sentences

Right or wrong, Britain is not responsible for it, and Mr. Wallace's picture of the United States in leading strings is quite fanciful.

From Time Magazine Archive

Hang it, young Joseph, I used to hope that you'd grow wiser in time and cease to need leading strings, but what's bred in the bone comes out in the blood!

From An Old Story of My Farming Days Vol. I (of III). (Ut Mine Stromtid) by Reuter, Fritz

The other young lady was a slip of a girl just coming out; in fact, this was the first visit which she had ever paid out of leading strings.

From Tom Brown at Oxford by Hughes, Thomas

It is but now, that, unconsciously, mankind is beginning to emerge from the leading strings of its infancy, which became an iron bondage to its prolonged childhood.

From The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations by Nuttall, Zelia

Mother country has only to keep up the motherly relation, and patiently loosen the leading strings, according as her colonies grow able to run alone.'

From Cedar Creek From the Shanty to the Settlement by Walshe, Elizabeth Hely