swaddling clothes

plural noun

1. clothes consisting of long, narrow strips of cloth for swaddling an infant.

2. long garments for an infant.

3. the period of infancy or immaturity, as of a person, or incipience, as of a thing.

   Nuclear energy is still in its swaddling clothes.

4. rigid supervision or restriction of actions or movements, as of the immature.

   new nations that are freeing themselves of their swaddling clothes.

swaddling clothes

plural noun

1. long strips of linen or other cloth formerly wrapped round a newly born baby

2. restrictions or supervision imposed on the immature

Word History and Origins

Origin of swaddling clothes¹

First recorded in 1525–35