shoestring

English

WOTD – 20 October 2022

Etymology

Shoestrings (sense 1) or shoelaces of a pair of sneakers.

A plate of shoestring French fries (sense 2.2.2).

The noun is derived from shoe +‎ string. The adjective is derived from the noun, while the verb is derived from terms such as shoestring catch and shoestring tackle.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈʃuːstɹɪŋ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈʃustɹɪŋ/
• Hyphenation: shoe‧string

Noun

shoestring (plural shoestrings)

1. (chiefly US) The string or lace used to secure a shoe to the foot; a shoelace.

   Your shoestring is untied.

   • 1755, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, “The Pleasant Artifice Practised to Extricate Our Enamoured Knight from the Most Rigorous Penance He had Imposed upon Himself”, in T[obias] Smollett, transl., The History and Adventures of the Renowned Don Quixote. […], volume I, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, part I, book IV, page 221:

     I am ſure ſhe is not half ſo beautiful, and vvill even venture to ſay, that ſhe is not vvorthy to tie her majeſty's ſhoe-ſtrings.

2. (figuratively, often attributively)
   1. An object that is long and thin, like a shoestring (sense 1).
      1. (cooking) A long, narrow cut of a food; a julienne.

         shoestring French fries

   2. Chiefly in on a shoestring: very little money; a tight budget.

      He was able to organize the event on a shoestring.

      • 2022 November 23, Hadley Freeman, “Like a cinema virgin: how Madonna went stratospheric making Desperately Seeking Susan”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

        As the 80s cult classic starring Madonna as a gorgeous grifter returns, director Susan Seidelman recalls capturing the zeitgeist on a shoestring budget[.]

Coordinate terms

• bootstring

Derived terms

• devil's shoestring
• on a shoestring
• prairie shoestring
• shoestring annexation
• shoestring fern
• shoestring French fry, shoestring fry
• shoestring fungus
• shoestring necktie, shoestring tie
• shoestring potato
• shoestring root rot
• shoestring rot
• shoestring tackle

Translations

string or lace used to secure a shoe to the foot — see shoelace

object that is long and thin

• Finnish: pitkulainen (fi) (adjective)

long, narrow cut of a food — see also julienne

• Bulgarian: жулиен m (žulien)
• Finnish: julienne, tikku (fi)
• French: julienne (fr) f, allumette (fr) f
• Russian: соло́мка (ru) (solómka)

very little money; a tight budget

• Bulgarian: ограничени средства (ograničeni sredstva)
• Czech: napjatý rozpočet m
• Dutch: grijpstuiver (nl) m
• Finnish: kengännauhabudjetti (fi), taskuraha (fi)
• Russian: небольша́я су́мма де́нег (nebolʹšája súmma déneg), небольши́е сбереже́ния (nebolʹšíje sberežénija)

Adjective

shoestring (not comparable)

1. (US, chiefly American football, baseball) Of a catch or tackle: made near the ground, close to a player's shoes.

Derived terms

• shoestring catch
• shoestring tackle

Translations

of a catch or tackle: made near the ground, close to a player’s shoes

• Finnish: jalka-

Verb

shoestring (third-person singular simple present shoestrings, present participle shoestringing, simple past and past participle shoestringed)

1. (transitive, American football) To tackle (a player) using a shoestring tackle (“one made near the ground, close to a player's shoes”).
2. (transitive, baseball) To catch (a ball) using a shoestring catch (“one made near the ground, close to a player's shoes”).
   • 1976, Paul R. Rothweiler, The Sensuous Southpaw […], New York, N.Y.: Putnam, →ISBN, page 104:

     We didn't score in our half of the eighth, but it was only because Ernie's line drive was shoestringed by the Giant left fielder, with Rusty Howarth on second.

   • 1981 April 13, Steve Wulf, “Tricks of the Trade”, in Sports Illustrated Baseball: Four Decades of Sports Illustrated’s Finest Writing on America’s Favorite Pastime (Collector’s Library), Birmingham, Ala.: Oxmoor House, published 1994, →ISBN, page 275:

     Most outfielders say that short-hopping a ball so that it looks as if it was caught is more an accident than an art form, but Coach Joe Nossek of the Indians actually tells his charges to hold up the ball after shoestringing it on the off chance that the umpire might be fooled.

Translations

to tackle (a player) using a shoestring tackle

• Finnish: taklata alas, taklata jalkoihin

to catch (a ball) using a shoestring catch

• Finnish: ottaa koppi matalalta

Further reading

• shoelace on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• shoestring (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “shoestring, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2022.
• “shoestring, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.