cut the apron strings
cut the apron strings
To lessen the extent to which someone controls, influences, or monitors someone else, especially parents in relation to their children. Mothers these days are so fussy about their kids, having to know where they are at every second of the day. They would really do well to cut the apron strings a little, if you ask me! Sending kids to summer camps has been in decline in recent years, as parents have become less and less inclined to cut the apron strings.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
cut the apron strings
If a person, a country or an organization cuts the apron strings, they become independent. At 21, I was still living the life I'd been living when I was 15. I just had to get away from that, to cut those apron strings. Note: Verbs such as loosen or let go of can be used instead of cut. Don't give up on university. It will be good for her as well as you for you to loosen the apron strings now.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
- be put in charge (of someone or something)
- (one) puts (one's) pants on one leg at a time
- be left in charge (of someone or something)
- accompany (one) on a/(one's) journey
- accompany on a journey
- be like ships that pass in the night
- be ships that pass in the night
- be like ships passing in the night
- a stranger to (someone or something)
- be out of (one's) league