swaddling clothes

plural noun

1. clothes consisting of long, narrow strips of cloth for swaddling an infant.
2. long garments for an infant.
3. the period of infancy or immaturity, as of a person, or incipience, as of a thing:

   Nuclear energy is still in its swaddling clothes.

4. rigid supervision or restriction of actions or movements, as of the immature:

   new nations that are freeing themselves of their swaddling clothes.

swaddling clothes

plural noun

1. long strips of linen or other cloth formerly wrapped round a newly born baby
2. restrictions or supervision imposed on the immature

Word History and Origins

Origin of swaddling clothes¹

First recorded in 1525–35

Example Sentences

This is turning into a season of swaddling clothes; of adult snugglies and softness; of clothes so squishy they are like a portable form of self-care.

From New York Times

They are consciously not us — not working from home, not resorting to jeans and swaddling clothes — but they embody our official reference points.

From New York Times

Only on Wednesday, at last, did the Duke and Duchess present their firstborn, wrapped in swaddling clothes, to the prying gaze of the world.

From The New Yorker

A grateful Mary, mother of God, gave them a piece of the baby's swaddling clothes.

From BBC

She transformed herself into an astonishingly large hawk, descended on the child, gripped the swaddling clothes in her talons, and lifted the baby into the sky.

From Literature