swaddling clothes

American  

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.

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swaddling clothes British  

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

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Etymology

Origin of swaddling clothes

First recorded in 1525–35

Example Sentences

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 she brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in the manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith