SHOESTRING • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Shoestring

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/ʃˈustrˌɪŋ/ Listen

noun

Shoestring n.

Same as shoelace.

A sum of money, inadequate or barely adequate for the purpose to which it is put to use; as, to start up an enterprise on a shoestring.

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Etymology of 'Shoestring'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Shoestring" Quotes from Famous Books

... bidden. Scheffer untied his shoestring, drew off the dusty, worn-out shoe, and tried the pair in his hand. The ...

— The Continental Monthly , Vol. 2 No. 5, November 1862 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... you could have seen him: he was small and tough and inactive beyond the power of imagination to conceive. He wore an ultramarine-blue woollen shirt laced down the front with a pearl-gray, exaggerated sort of shoestring, indestructible brown duck clothes, inevitable high-heeled boots with Mexican spurs, and a Mexican ...

— Sixes and Sevens • O. Henry

... of Shropshire has had a fit, but rallied. He vows he was only picking up a letter, or tying his shoestring, or something of that kind; but Ruthven says he dined off boudins a la Sefton, and that, after a ...

— The Young Duke • Benjamin Disraeli

... good-evening again," said the Creole. I noticed the perfection of his dress; evidently he had not as yet loosed as much as a shoestring. And then I observed also that the visitor so close before ...

— Strong Hearts • George W. Cable