SHOESTRING • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Shoestring

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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

... in his hand; from the breast pocket of his faded and dirty frock coat a bundle of ancient newspapers protruded. His shoestring tie straggled over his frayed shirt front, while at his wrist one of his crumpled cuffs, detached from the sleeve, showed the bare, thin wrist between cloth and linen, and encumbered the fingers in which he held the unlit stump of ...

— The Pit • Frank Norris

... has taken hold of our foreign relations himself. With such a man at the helm at home, we can do whatever we wish to do with the English, as I've often told you. (But it raises doubts every time the shoestring necktie, broad-brimmed black hat, oratorical, old-time, River Platte kind of note is heard.) We've come a long way in a year—a very joyful long way, full of progress and real understanding; there's no doubt about that. A year ago they knew very well the failure ...

— The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, Volume I • Burton J. Hendrick

... something I lost," said the young oarsman. "Have you seen anything in here of a flat, white package with a black shoestring tied around it?" ...

— The Young Oarsmen of Lakeview • Ralph Bonehill

... lost between Bunker Hill and Professor Diffenderfer was evident by their curt greetings, but as they began to bandy words Denver became suddenly aware that he was the cause of their feud. He and his eight hundred dollars, a sum so small that a shoestring promoter would hardly notice it; and yet these two men with their superfluity of claims were fighting for his favor like pawn-brokers. Bunker Hill had seen him first and claimed him as his right; but Professor Diffenderfer, ...

— Silver and Gold - A Story of Luck and Love in a Western Mining Camp • Dane Coolidge

... gayly down the steps of the hotel where I lodged, in peg-top trousers so much more peg top than my own that I seemed to be wearing mere spring-bottoms in comparison; and in a day when every one who respected himself had a necktie as narrow as he could get, this youth had one no wider than a shoestring, and red at that, while mine measured almost an inch, and was black. To be sure, he was one of a band of negro minstrels, who were to give a concert that night, and he had a light to excel ...

— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

Words linked to "Shoestring" : shoelace, small indefinite quantity, aiglet, shoe string, small indefinite amount, shoe lace, aglet, shoestring fungus, shoestring catch, lacing