Meanings
- pluralplural onlyStrings 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 - figurativelypluralplural onlyGuidance 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
Cite this entry
leading strings. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/leading%20strings
“leading strings.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/leading%20strings. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “leading strings,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/leading%20strings.
Source: leading strings on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.