shoestring
Americannoun
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another word for shoelace
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informal
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a very small or petty amount of money (esp in the phrase on a shoestring )
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( as modifier )
a shoestring budget
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Etymology
Origin of shoestring
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
For a while, it relied on a shoestring team that included two analysts, an economist, a director of research and a risk manager.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
He paid for most of the first season himself, a six-figure cost for six episodes produced on a shoestring budget.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
"Back in the day, it was difficult because you're working on a shoestring budget, trying to make things happen," says Painter.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
That’s where you get the skinny jeans and the shoestring for a belt, the grunge-style backpack, wearing beanies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 10, 2025
Although funds for chemical control came in never-ending streams, the biologists of the Illinois Natural History Survey who attempted to measure the damage to wildlife had to operate on a financial shoestring.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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.
