mama's boy

American  

noun

1. a boy or man showing excessive attachment to or dependence on his mother.

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mama's boy Idioms  

1. A sissy, especially a boy or man excessively attached to his mother. For example, The children called Tom a mama's boy because he ran home with every little problem. This sexist expression has survived despite its pejorative tone. [Colloquial; mid-1800s]

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Etymology

Origin of mama's boy

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

He’s got a frat-boy face and a mama’s-boy demeanor.

From New York Times • Nov. 27, 2019

That kiss will change lives: those of Kim; her family; her boyfriend; Conrad’s mama’s-boy manager, Albert; and Albert’s long-suffering girlfriend, Rose.

From New York Times • Aug. 12, 2016

At first they were traditional gangsters marked by a new streak of sadism and neuroticism, embodied by James Cagney’s mama’s-boy train robber in Raoul Walsh’s 1949 “White Heat.”

From New York Times • Aug. 12, 2011

Classic Hitchcock in skeletal form: the setting of Rear Window; the mama's-boy murderer from Strangers on a Train; and even a fashionable switch of identities from Vertigo and Marnie.

From Time Magazine Archive