leading-string

Definitions

noun historical, usually in plural Strings with which children were formerly guided while they were learning to walk.

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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“Because though old, he is but a child in the leading-string of hope.”

The History of Pendennis 2006
He tied a leading-string around the mascot's neck.

Lady Luck Hugh Wiley
Then she rode on and out through the gates, ignoring Aggie's pitiful wail and scorning the leading-string the instructor offered.

Tish 1916
Then she rode on and out through the gates, ignoring Aggie's pitiful wail and scorning the leading-string the instructor offered.

Tish Mary Roberts Rinehart 1917
"You're getting too old to be on a leading-string, _mon cher_."

Charles Rex 1910
Penrod cried, and he ran to the stuffed and linked stockings, seized the leading-string, and vigorously illustrated his further remarks.

Penrod and Sam Booth Tarkington 1907
And after that I did not see him until just before we -- I came home, Really, mama, I can't have a leading-string on Sir Redmond.

Her Prairie Knight B. M. Bower 1905
A King Charles spaniel, dragging a leading-string in the shape of a huge pink sash, followed the girl.

McTeague 1899
A King Charles spaniel, dragging a leading-string in the shape of a huge pink sash, followed the girl.

McTeague Frank Norris 1886
She often took me out of my box, at my own desire, to give me air and show me the country; but always held me fast by a leading-string.

The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume III (of X) - Great Britain and Ireland I Various 1885