loosen the apron strings

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loosen the apron strings (third-person singular simple present loosens the apron strings, present participle loosening the apron strings, simple past and past participle loosened the apron strings)

1. (idiomatic, colloquial) To allow greater freedom (to someone); to relax control of (someone).
   • 1948, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, National Education Association of the United States. Dept. of Supervision and Curriculum Development, “Educational leadership”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 6, page 534:

     They see how serious it is not to "loosen the apron strings"; how unfortunate it may be to talk about a child in his presence; how we must take people where...

• Not as common since circa 1990, but still used.