shoestring

What it means

1. USThe string or lace used to secure a shoe to the foot; a shoelace.

   Your shoestring is untied.

   1 more example

   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.

   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

2. attributivefigurativelyoftenAn object that is long and thin, like a shoestring (sense 1).
   1. attributivefigurativelyoftencookingA long, narrow cut of a food; a julienne.

      shoestring French fries

In a sentence

Your shoestring is untied.

Where it comes from

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.