Dictionary

apron string en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. One of the pair of strings or narrow sewn clothstrips used to fasten an apron around the wearer's waist.
2. (idiomatic, plural-normally) A symbol of the domestic ties binding a male to a female (as a husband to a wife or a son to a mother).
   • Yes, Stiva may be right, I'm not manly with her, I'm tied to her apron-strings… Well, it can't be helped! 1901 [1878], chapter 11, in Constance Garnett, transl., Anna Karenina, translation of Анна Каренина (Anna Karenina) by Leo Tolstoy, part 6:
   • [T]he opinion of the country was that my lord was tied to his wife's apron-strings, and that she ruled over him. 1852, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 7, in The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. […] , volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] Smith, Elder, & Company, […], →OCLC:
   • tied to someone's apron strings
   • "Pooh!" said Jerry, throwing out his chest, "I guess I can take care of myself without being tied to my mother's apron strings!" 1914, Thornton W. Burgess, chapter 1, in The Adventures of Jerry Muskrat:

Forms

Deriveds

loosen the apron strings · apron-string hold

Relateds

cut the umbilical cord