as in dime
a very small sum of money
trying to start a business on a shoestring
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in spindly
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of shoestring
Winston Ross,
Forbes.com,
30 May 2026
Despite operating in an obscure location with a shoestring budget, the show survived the COVID-19 pandemic through livestreams and continues providing experimental artists rare opportunities.
—
Christopher Buchanan,
Los Angeles Times,
18 May 2026
Erik Kirschbaum,
Los Angeles Times,
24 Sep. 2021
Recent polls show that public opinion of Trump is souring as former Vice President Joe Biden pulls ahead in crucial swing states, despite a shoestring campaign and self-confinement to his Delaware home.
—
Justin Sink,
Bloomberg.com,
12 May 2020
See All Example Sentences for shoestring
Noun
Claremont Resort and Club I was a literal latchkey kid, bathed with a shoestring around my neck in the kitchen sink of a flat in a pale blue Victorian facing Shattuck Avenue, in Berkeley, California.
—
Winston Ross,
Forbes.com,
30 May 2026
Despite operating in an obscure location with a shoestring budget, the show survived the COVID-19 pandemic through livestreams and continues providing experimental artists rare opportunities.
—
Christopher Buchanan,
Los Angeles Times,
18 May 2026
Adjective
The nonpartisan Wahl-O-Mat runs on a shoestring annual budget of 100,000 euros, or $120,000, with just three staff members under the aegis of the federal agency for civic education (BPB), Pamela Brandt, project manager since 2004, said in an interview.
—
Erik Kirschbaum,
Los Angeles Times,
24 Sep. 2021
Recent polls show that public opinion of Trump is souring as former Vice President Joe Biden pulls ahead in crucial swing states, despite a shoestring campaign and self-confinement to his Delaware home.
—
Justin Sink,
Bloomberg.com,
12 May 2020
See All Example Sentences for shoestring
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shoestring
Noun
-
In Texas, an 18-wheeler dropped $800,000 in dimes onto a highway in April 2025, sending crews scrambling as coins scattered across the roadway.
-
Shop more Amazon options below that are just as great, but don’t cost a dime over $60.
Adjective
-
In the video, the musician trashes an apartment, gets out of a cop car, and runs through a field at golden hour with spindly pylons in the background.
-
Remove thin and spindly stems that can't hold up the weight of flowers, especially crossing stems.
Adjective
-
Among them is, naturally, the stringy bikini look, and Kylie Jenner appears more than happy to kick off the season while soaking in every second of her dreamy Kylie Cosmetics trip.
-
Everyone is bulbous, stringy, or malformed.
Adjective
-
Madonna unveiled a major hair transformation, a bouncy mullet with wispy bangs, that looks straight out of the '80s.
-
The house kept the white surface densely beaded and concentrated the softness at the lower skirt, where wispy feathers turned the otherwise clean column into a textural, trumpet shape.
Adjective
-
Their twiggy legs and bony frames exposed in bathing suits, the kids do indeed look extra vulnerable within the film’s savage landscape.
-
Hummingbirds need the safety of shrubs and twiggy trees to perch on.
Adjective
-
Gray, a lanky man with a gray mustache, volunteers as a docent at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, just across from Boeing Field.
-
Green's first two seasons in college went according to script and the lanky downfield threat was as good as advertised, earning first-team All-SEC honors in back-to-back years.
Adjective
-
The soft, willowy branches bear red flower spikes on the tips in warm months.
-
Shredded vegetables — carrot, ginger, papaya, shallot and cucumber, some pickled and some fresh — are arranged, per the original name, over top in willowy repose.
Adjective
-
Among those acolytes is Lucien (Jérémy Gillet), a reedy, repressed young virgin who yearns to be part of the gay community but hasn’t the courage to come out to his domineering mother Christine (Elisabeth Wiener), who also just happens to be the country’s very right-wing health minister.
-
Firm if slightly sweaty handshake notwithstanding, there’s a gentleness to Root; old-school manners, slender shoulders and a reedy Sheffield twang.
Cite this Entry
“Shoestring.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shoestring. Accessed 29 Jun. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
