leading strings
Americanplural noun
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strings for leading and supporting a child learning to walk.
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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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
The bourgeois effaces the knight; the Italian of the Renaissance has broken the leading strings of mystical romance.
From Renaissance in Italy: Italian Literature Part 1 (of 2) by Symonds, John Addington
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
"I reckon I will have to put leading strings on both of you," replied Lawrence, with a smile.
From The Courier of the Ozarks by Dunn, Byron A. (Byron Archibald)
And was it thus that the Lady Jess had all her “boys” in leading strings?
From Jessica Trent: Her Life on a Ranch by Raymond, Evelyn
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.
