on a shoestring
a very small budget
TRANSLATION
on a shoestring = mit wenig Geld --- GOOGLE INDEX on a shoestring: approximately 40,800,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Travel ON A SHOESTRING
(Lonely Planet travel portal)
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Various orders of the Catholic Church, the occasional Anglican, and a handful of small British and American charities, often run ON A SHOESTRING round a kitchen table.
(Daily Telegraph)
(Lonely Planet travel portal)
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Various orders of the Catholic Church, the occasional Anglican, and a handful of small British and American charities, often run ON A SHOESTRING round a kitchen table.
(Daily Telegraph)
Did you
know?
on a shoestring
idiom
- to do something with a very small amount of money
(Cambridge Advanced Learner"s Dictionary)
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Shoestring (also referred to as shoelace) is a 17th century compound noun combing the words shoe and string. Shoe" is from the Old English scoh, which in turn stems from the Proto-Germanic "skokhaz." There are no known cognates outside of Germanic languages (Danish and Swedish sko, Dutch schoen, German Schuh).
String is from the Old English "streng" (line, cord, thread) which derived from the Proto-Germanic "strangiz." There are several related words in Germanic languages such as the Danish streng, Dutch streng and German Strang (rope, cord).
In addition to its idiomatic use, the word shoestring can be applied as a noun or adjective to refer to a small amount of money (We operate on a shoestring budget).
Exactly how the phrase "on a shoestring" originated is not clear. Some etymologists suggest that it comes from the idea that shoestrings are thin and break easily, thus implying something that is cheap and of low quality. Others believe it is because there was a time when thrifty people would save broken shoestrings for use around the house, making shoestring synonymous with a low budget.
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SYNONYMS
(for "a very small amount of money")
small potatoes, small change, pittance, chicken feed, peanuts, a drop in the bucket, scraps
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"We completed the project on time and on a shoestring."
idiom
- to do something with a very small amount of money
(Cambridge Advanced Learner"s Dictionary)
---
Shoestring (also referred to as shoelace) is a 17th century compound noun combing the words shoe and string. Shoe" is from the Old English scoh, which in turn stems from the Proto-Germanic "skokhaz." There are no known cognates outside of Germanic languages (Danish and Swedish sko, Dutch schoen, German Schuh).
String is from the Old English "streng" (line, cord, thread) which derived from the Proto-Germanic "strangiz." There are several related words in Germanic languages such as the Danish streng, Dutch streng and German Strang (rope, cord).
In addition to its idiomatic use, the word shoestring can be applied as a noun or adjective to refer to a small amount of money (We operate on a shoestring budget).
Exactly how the phrase "on a shoestring" originated is not clear. Some etymologists suggest that it comes from the idea that shoestrings are thin and break easily, thus implying something that is cheap and of low quality. Others believe it is because there was a time when thrifty people would save broken shoestrings for use around the house, making shoestring synonymous with a low budget.
---
SYNONYMS
(for "a very small amount of money")
small potatoes, small change, pittance, chicken feed, peanuts, a drop in the bucket, scraps
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"We completed the project on time and on a shoestring."
