The Collaborative International Dictionary
Apron string \A"pron string`\ The string of an apron.
To be tied to a wife's apron strings or To be tied to a mother's apron strings, to be unduly controlled by a wife or mother.
He was so made that he could not submit to be tied
to the apron strings even of the best of wives.
--Macaulay.
Wiktionary
alt. 1 One of the pair of strings or narrow sewn cloth strips used to fasten an apron around the wearer's waist. 2 (context idiomatic usually pluralized English) A symbol of the domestic ties binding a male to a female (as a husband to a wife or a son to a mother). n. 1 One of the pair of strings or narrow sewn cloth strips used to fasten an apron around the wearer's waist. 2 (context idiomatic usually pluralized English) A symbol of the domestic ties binding a male to a female (as a husband to a wife or a son to a mother).
WordNet
n. cord used to tie an apron at the waist [syn: apron strings]
Usage examples of "apron string".
Unconscious of her passenger, the Giantess briskly mounted the stair, Reddy swinging round and round at each step and hoping heartily that the apron string would not come untied.
Letting go the maid's apron string, Reddy dropped to the floor and creeping behind a toy block, peered around in amazement.
As he came within a yard of the casket, however, he laid eyes on a clue to its contents: an apron string, left hanging out of the box by whoever had locked it.
If you can take him down I can garrotte the other one with my apron string, whispered Tonker in her ear, between howls.
There were no cords connected to anything: no umbilical cord, no apron string, no safety line.