leading strings

noun — 2 senses

leading strings

noun

1

Strings or straps by which a child is supported when learning to walk.

Thenceforward my voice was a household law; and at an age when few children have abandoned their leading-strings, I was left to the guidance of my own will, and became, in all but name, the master of my own actions.1839, Edgar Allan Poe, William Wilson:

2

Figuratively Guidance given during childhood.

In the hey-day of youth, and hardly out of the leading strings of a school, he formed an intention to nuptialize, and joined heart and hand with sweet Ann Hathaway at the age of eighteen and a half.1827, The Boston Lyceum, volumes 1-2, page 206:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.