swaddling clothes: Meaning and Definition of

swad'dling clothes"

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:Also called new nations that are freeing themselves of their swaddling clothes.