straw
Americannoun
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a single stalk or stem, especially of certain species of grain, chiefly wheat, rye, oats, and barley.
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a mass of such stalks, especially after drying and threshing, used as fodder.
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material, fibers, etc., made from such stalks, as used for making hats or baskets.
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the negligible value of one such stalk; trifle; least bit.
not to care a straw.
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a tube, usually of paper or glass, for sucking up a beverage from a container.
to sip lemonade through a straw.
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anything of possible but dubious help in a desperate circumstance.
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a straw hat.
adjective
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of, pertaining to, containing, or made of straw.
a straw hat.
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of the color of straw; pale yellow.
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of little value or consequence; worthless.
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sham; fictitious.
idioms
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draw straws, to decide by lottery using straws or strawlike items of different lengths, usually with the short straw or straws determining the person chosen or the loser.
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catch / clutch / grasp at a straw / straws / any straw(s), to seize at any chance, no matter how slight, of saving oneself from calamity.
noun
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stalks of threshed grain, esp of wheat, rye, oats, or barley, used in plaiting hats, baskets, etc, or as fodder
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( as modifier )
a straw hat
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a single dry or ripened stalk, esp of a grass
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a long thin hollow paper or plastic tube or stem of a plant, used for sucking up liquids into the mouth
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(usually used with a negative) anything of little value or importance
I wouldn't give a straw for our chances
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a measure or remedy that one turns to in desperation (esp in the phrases clutch or grasp at a straw or straws )
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a pale yellow colour
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( as adjective )
straw hair
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a hint or indication
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a small incident, setback, etc that, coming after others, proves intolerable
adjective
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
- strawless adjective
- strawlike adjective
Etymology
Origin of straw
before 950; Middle English; Old English strēaw; cognate with German Stroh; akin to strew
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“I mean, who drinks out of a straw when you get past the age of 10, right?” he says, jokingly.
From Los Angeles Times
After a long night tossing on scratchy straw bedding, the group disembarked a few hundred miles away at Newark, New York.
From Literature
“That wasn’t a very nice thing to say. Now, you go get that straw. I want to set those hens.”
From Literature
I gathered the straw from the ground until I had a handful.
From Literature
After an overconfident miller fibs that his daughter can spin straw into gold, a greedy king locks the poor girl in a room full of straw.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
