leading-string

English

Noun

leading-string (plural leading-strings)

1. (historical, usually in the plural) Strings with which children were formerly guided while they were learning to walk.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society 1973, p. 396:

     her lover [...] treated me in all respects as a perfect infant. To say the truth, I wonder she had not insisted on my again wearing leading-strings.

   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 74:

     Highly protective – Louis wore leading strings until he was seven, a corset for his posture until he was ten – his guardians cocooned him from a wide range of normal childhood experiences.

Translations

strings with which children were formerly guided while they were learning to walk

• Russian: по́мочи (ru) pl (pómoči) (also figurative)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}