shoestring

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a cord or lace used to fasten a shoe

   He stopped to retie a loose shoestring before climbing the steps.

2. 2
   noun

   a very small or inadequate amount of money available for a purpose

   The students organized the exhibition on a shoestring.

3. 3
   adj

   operating with or requiring very little money

   A shoestring campaign relied on volunteers and borrowed equipment.

A compound of shoe + string. The literal fastening is recorded from the seventeenth century. The financial sense probably compares a tiny sum with the narrowness or slightness of a shoestring; on a shoestring and shoestring budget became established expressions for operating with very little money.

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