shoestring

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The Word of the Day for June 19 is: 

shoestring   \SHOO-string\   noun
     1 : shoelace 
    *2 : a small sum of money : capital inadequate or barely adequate to the 
needs of a transaction 

Example sentence:
     For the first few years, Jillian and Georgia ran the business on a 
shoestring.

Did you know?
     In earlier times, wandering peddlers offered townspeople a variety of 
items and trinkets, such as fabrics, embroidery materials, and even patent 
medicines. Another popular offering from these traveling salespeople was 
shoelaces. The fact that such vendors neither earned much money nor charged 
very much for their wares led to the connection of their literal shoestrings 
with a metaphorical application of "shoestring" to a very small amount of 
money. It's still not uncommon to hear of a business being operated on a 
shoestring (even if these days it's less likely that actual shoelaces are 
involved), but it's also possible to speak of "traveling on a shoestring" and 
even "gardening on a shoestring."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence. 





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