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tied to your mother's/wife's apron strings

disapproving

Definition

If you say that someone, especially a man, is tied to his mother's/wife's apron strings, it means that he is strongly influenced and controlled by that person: George never comes out with the rest of us - he's tied to his wife's apron strings.Obedient and compliantObeying and breaking the law
(Definition of tied to your mother's/wife's apron strings from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

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