apron string

Alternative forms

• apron-string

Noun

apron string (plural apron strings)

1. One of the pair of strings or narrow sewn clothstrips used to fasten an apron around the wearer's waist.
2. (idiomatic, usually pluralized) A symbol of the domestic ties binding a male to a female (as a husband to a wife or a son to a mother).
   • 1852, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 7, in The History of Henry Esmond, Esq.:

     [T]he opinion of the country was that my lord was tied to his wife's apron-strings, and that she ruled over him.

   • 1914, Thornton W. Burgess, chapter 1, in The Adventures of Jerry Muskrat:

     "Pooh!" said Jerry, throwing out his chest, "I guess I can take care of myself without being tied to my mother's apron strings!"