leading-stringn.
/ˈliːdɪŋstrɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈlidɪŋˌstrɪŋ/ Chiefly plural.
1. Strings with which children used to be guided and supported when learning to walk. to be in leading-strings: to be still a child; figurative to be in a state of dependence or pupilage.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > subjection > [noun] > dependency
hangingc1430
dependency1593
dependence1614
unsubsistence1642
leading-string1677
the world > people > person > child > [noun] > childhood
childhoodOE
childheadc1330
bairnheid1393
enfauncec1400
puerice1481
puerility1512
childage1548
childishness1597
leading-string1677
impuberty1785
cap and feather days1822
bairnhooda1835
child-life1841
pupillarity1846
tunic-hood1859
bread-and-butterhood1869
preadolescence1907
latency1910
puerilism1925
the world > people > person > child > [noun] > childhood > minority
nonage1400
less agec1436
minority1493
pupillarity1561
nonwit1571
pupilship1581
pupillage1590
pupil age1598
under-age1613
underagedness1648
infancy1658
leading-string1677
minorship1841
minorage1888
the world > action or operation > safety > protection or defence > [noun] > means of protection or defence > device or contrivance to protect a thing or person > device protecting babies or infants
leading-string1677
dading1865
reins1878
baby harness1899
society > travel > aspects of travel > going on foot > [noun] > walking leisurely or idly > an act of > support when walking or learning to walk
leading-string1677
1677 W. Wycherley Plain-dealer i. 1 But I'll have no Leading-strings, I can walk alone.
a1685 T. Otway Poet's Complaint of Muse xiii, in Wks. (1727) II. 366 In little time the Hell-bred Brat..Without his Leading-strings could walk.
1779 T. A. Mann in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eminent Literary Men (1843) (Camden) 417 I live in a Country where good Philosophy is still in its leading-strings.
1780 W. Cowper Progress of Error 531 One that still needs his leading-string and bib.
1812 W. Irving Hist. N.Y. (ed. 2) I. ii. vii. 119 He..gallops through mud and mire,..merely to show that he is a lad of spirit, and out of his leading strings.
1851 H. Mayhew London Labour I. 317/2 Thus the ‘model’ lodgers are kept, as it were, in leading-strings.
1884 J. R. Lowell Wks. (1890) VI. 135 His [Cervantes'] genius soon broke away from the leading-strings of a plot that denied free scope to his conceptions.
2. A cord for leading an animal. Cf. leading-rein n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > general equipment > [noun] > lead
stringa1300
banda1400
head rope1810
tending-string1821
lead-rope1846
leading-string1859
jerk line1865
guy rein1869
headline1889
1859 Archaeologia Cantiana 2 106 At the feet of each crouches a dog with knotted leading-strings.
1885 J. Ruskin Præterita I. v. 159 Led..by a riding master with a leading string.
Derivatives
leading-stringed adj. guided with, or kept within, leading-strings.Apparently an isolated use.
ΚΠ
1859 W. M. Thackeray Virginians II. xiv. 104 A powerful mettlesome young Achilles ought not to be leading-stringed by women too much.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1902; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1677