Meaning & use
shoelace
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A thin cord that is pulled through holes on a shoe and tied to keep the shoe snug on the foot.
Grammar: Countable and usually used in pairs or plural: one shoelace came undone, but she tied both shoelaces.
Patterns
- tie a shoelace
- a shoelace on something
He bent down to tie his shoelace before the race started.
One of my shoelaces snapped just as I was leaving.
The little boy was proud that he could do up his own shoelaces.
Word forms
| plural | shoelaces |
|---|
Common combinations
- tie a shoelace
- Wait a second while I tie my shoelace.
- untie a shoelace
- She untied her shoelaces and kicked off her boots.
- a loose shoelace
- A loose shoelace nearly made him trip on the stairs.
- a shoelace comes undone
- Her shoelace came undone halfway through the walk.
- a broken shoelace
- I replaced the broken shoelace with a new one.
Synonyms and how they differ
- lace
- Lace is the shorter, more general word and can also be used for boots, corsets, or other items that fasten with cord.
- shoestring
- Shoestring is a mainly American word for the same cord, and it also appears in idioms such as on a shoestring budget.
Word family
Commonly confused: shoelace or lace?
shoelace vs lace
Lace on its own can mean a delicate patterned fabric. A shoelace is the cord used to tie shoes, not the fabric.
Practice
Be careful on the stairs, because your ___ is untied and you might trip.
Choose one answer.
A shoelace is the cord that can come untied. A shoehorn helps you put on shoes, a shoebox holds them, and a shoemaker makes them, so none of these can be untied.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “shoelace”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.