Citations:pearl-clutching

Adjective: "(idiomatic) timid, sanctimonious, or easily offended"

 * 2006, "Pride 'em, cowboys", National Post, 6 January 2006:
 * But I have been surprised by the lack of pearl-clutching editorials about the movie from right-wing pundits in the United States.
 * 2007, Amanda Marcotte, It's a Jungle Out There: The Feminist Survival Guide to Politically Inhospitable Environments, Seal Press (2007), ISBN 9781580052269, page 141:
 * When John Kerry “outed” Mary Cheney in a 2004 presidential debate, it was already well known that Mary Cheney was a lesbian. You can't out the already out, no matter what pearl-clutching pundits would have you believe.
 * 2010, Suzanne Rivecca, Death Is Not an Option: Stories, W. W. Norton & Company (2010), ISBN 9780393072563, page 95:
 * Her prim horror put Alma in mind of the pearl-clutching mothers of enterprising pioneers, shades of Pa Ingalls's disapproving urban in-laws.
 * 2010, April Winchell, Regretsy: Where DIY Meets WTF, Villard Books (2010), ISBN 9780345523181, page 131:
 * Even the biggest doe-eyed, pearl-clutching Etsy muffin has to find some way to make it okay to be negative, because we have no choice.
 * 2013, The Best American Comics 2013, (eds. Jeff Smith, Jessica Abel, & Matt Madden), Houghton Mifflin (2013), ISBN 9780547995465, page 362:
 * There's something truly irresistible about the pearl-clutching cartoons that came out during the time people thought women on bicycles were single-handedly going to bring society to ruin.

Adjective: "(idiomatic) shocking, frightening, or worrying"

 * 2005, Maria Raha, Cinderella's Big Score: Women of the Punk and Indie Underground, Seal Press (2005), ISBN 1580051162, page 113:
 * However pearl-clutching her image may have been to a Reagan-steeped Middle America, Madonna had co-opted and popularized a punk subculture that had been questioning and subsequently rejecting everything since its official beginnings in 1976 — particularly notions of acceptable fashion.
 * 2013, Sara Cotner, A Priceless Wedding: Crafting a Meaningful, Memorable, and Affordable Celebration, Voyageur Press (2013), ISBN 9781610586702, unnumbered page:
 * Abby and Seth's relationship has weathered two pearl-clutching scenarios.