| 释义 |
ˈshoe-string, shoestring
1. A string or tie used to fasten or lace a shoe.
1616R. Cocks Diary (Hakl. Soc.) I. 157 A peare silk garters, with gould fring, and shewstring same. 1755Smollett Quix. i. iv. iii. (1803) II. 40 She is not worthy to tie her majesty's shoe-strings.
2. A small or inadequate amount of money; a very little capital; a small margin. Chiefly in phr. on a shoe-string. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
[1882Century Mag. Apr. 884/2 [He] could draw to a shoe-string, as the saying went, and obtain a tan-yard! ]1904Cosmopolitan May 89 He..speculated ‘on a shoe⁓string’—an exceedingly slim margin. 1926J. Black You can't Win viii. 90 The new owners had no bankroll, just opened up on a shoestring. 1932Atlantic Monthly Mar. 310/1 Every business man who has made a big success of himself started on a shoestring. 1957Listener 28 Nov. 893/3 Reformative efforts have to be..as they say, ‘run on a shoe-string’. 1977C. McCullough Thorn Birds xvii. 441 Australians in England, youth-hosteling on a shoestring.
3. = shoe-string potato, sense 4 c below.
1931B. Starke Touch & Go x. 156, I..found that the word ‘shoe-strings’ on the menu really meant Julienne potatoes. I ate every last shoe-string.
4. attrib. and Comb.
a. attrib. Narrow (lit. and fig.).
1878Congress. Rec. App. 13 June 478/2, I will promise to meet him on the northern border of ‘the shoe-string district’. 1897Pop. Sci. Monthly L. 309 Bad roads and shoestring paths..fringe them. 1953Times 30 July 7 A shoe-string majority.
b. attrib. Operating on a shoe-string, costing or spending little; cheap, informal; petty.
1890J. P. Quinn Fools of Fortune 494 The gamblers, aside from a lot of ‘hangers on’, known as ‘shoestring’ or ‘tin horn’ gamblers, do not figure in the criminal records. 1923‘B. M. Bower’ Parowan Bonanza xi. 137 The little shoestring propositions that go broke and leave empty houses behind them. 1936Sun (Baltimore) 20 Nov. 1/5 The governors of the Federal Reserve System today proposed steps to plug up loopholes through which ‘shoe⁓string’ and other operators have been able to trade extensively without even posting margins. 1941B. Schulberg What makes Sammy Run? vi. 123 A shoe⁓string producer..had bought the stock shots from Hell's Angels and Wings and needed an airplane story. 1958Vogue Oct. 203 Winter after winter ski-crazy students flock to the snow for shoestring holidays which have been planned to the last farthing. 1959‘M. Neville’ Sweet Night for Murder i. 17 She talked, thought, dreamed clothes. On a shoe-string allowance, however, she could do little about them. 1977S. Wales Guardian 27 Oct. 1/3 The Education Committee was being penny wise and pound foolish by giving some contracts to small private contractors running on a shoe-string budget and using non-union labour. 1978J. Krantz Scruples iii. 78 The ad that launched Spider was for a new type of fingernail hardener, put out by a shoe-string company.
c. Special comb.: shoe-string catch Baseball, a running catch made close to the ground; shoe-string fungus = honey fungus s.v. honey n. (a.) 7 b; shoe-string potato U.S., a julienne potato (see julienne 2) (chiefly pl.); shoe-string (root) rot, the disease caused by shoe-string fungus; shoe-string tie, a very narrow neck-tie.
1926N.Y. Times 11 Oct. 25/2 Haley ran up on it and tried to make a shoestring catch of it. 1957New Yorker 13 July 17/1 Like a shoestring catch in center field, make it and you're the hero. Muff it and you're a dope.
1926F. D. Heald Man. Plant Diseases xxvi. 794 The causal fungus is generally referred to as the ‘honey agaric’..or the ‘shoestring fungus’. 1978T. A. Tattar Diseases of Shade Trees xxiii. 315 The shoestring-fungus..and the two-lined chestnut borer..are the most common organisms of secondary action.
1906‘H. McHugh’ Skiddoo! ii. 30 The next course was French fried potatoes with some shoe-string potatoes on the side. 1940Amer. Mercury Sept. 72 Old Fred Harvey started turning a shoestring potato into a 2500-mile of railroad eating-places. 1976U. Curtiss Birthday Gift xv. 141 As fruitless as looking for shoestring potatoes in strange supermarkets.
1978T. A. Tattar Diseases of Shade Trees x. 140 Shoestring root rot affects a wide range of shrubs and trees.
1931E. E. Hubert Outl. Forest Pathol. ix. 417 Shoestring rot is a disease well known to the forest pathologist.
1903F. Norris Pit 337 His shoestring tie straggled over his frayed shirt front. 1961Sunday Express 29 Jan. 15/6 A short, dark Frenchman in a shoe-string tie. |