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View synonyms for

shoestring

[ shoo-string ]

noun

  1. a shoelace.
  2. a very small amount of money.
  3. shoestrings. shoestring potatoes.


adjective

  1. consisting of or characterized by a small amount of money:

    living on a shoestring budget.

shoestring

/ ˈʃːˌٰɪŋ /

noun

  1. another word for shoelace
  2. informal.
    1. a very small or petty amount of money (esp in the phrase on a shoestring )
    2. ( as modifier )

      a shoestring budget

“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Word History and Origins

Origin of shoestring1

First recorded in 1610–20; shoe + string
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Idioms and Phrases

see on a shoestring .
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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Peanuts, but important peanuts — especially for rural and tribal libraries that function on shoestring budgets.

From

Only a handful of ecosystem restoration projects were attempted, hampered by shoestring budgets.

From

But the sprawling epic made with a shoestring budget failed to make a splash among Screen Actors Guild voters, ultimately being shut out of the SAG Awards’ top category by “Wicked.”

From

Yet for beginning drivers from L.A. and Orange County, who are struggling to race on a shoestring budget, that track might just as well be on another planet.

From

While Rome was riven by “internecine strife” and Britain ran its empire on a shoestring budget, the U.S. was “constitutionally stable” with “an enormous industrial base.”

From

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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