apron string
Mother's binding cord
The strings used to tie an apron around the waist.
Almost always appears in the phrase tied to someone's apron strings, meaning excessively dependent on or controlled by that person, typically a mother or wife: He's thirty and still tied to his mother's apron strings.
The image suggests childlike attachment to a domestic caretaker.
- tieEqual score, or neckwear
- overprotectionExcessive safeguarding of another
- cordFlexible twisted strand
- silver cordSoul's link to body
- motherhoodState of being a female parent
tied to · bow · knot · kitchen · home cooking · matriarchy · garment · tug · cooking · waist · nurturing · mama's boy · helicopter parent · reliance · control · influence · restriction · cut the umbilical cord
apron stringindependence
Freedom from external control
self-reliance · autonomy · emancipation · freedom · self-sufficiency
apron stringleaving the nest
Departing one's childhood home
flying the coop · empty nest · separation · estrangement · detachment
apron stringadulthood
State of being grown
maturity · grown-up · coming of age · leaving the nest · empty nest
apron, string, aprons, aproned, strings, stringed, stringing, stringy, stringier