| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| straw |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  strô |
| NOUN: | 1a. Stalks of threshed grain, used as bedding and food for animals, for thatching, and for weaving or braiding, as into baskets. b. A single stalk of threshed grain. 2. Something, such as a hat or basket, made of straw. 3. A slender tube used for sucking up a liquid. 4a. Something of minimal value or importance. b. Something with too little substance to provide support in a crisis: Near the end we were grasping at straws. | | ADJECTIVE: | 1. Of, relating to, or made of straw: a straw mat. 2. Containing or used for straw, as a barn or feeding trough. 3. Of the color of straw; yellowish. 4. Having little or no value or substance; unimportant. 5. Of, relating to, or constituting a straw man. | | IDIOMS: | final (or last) straw The final annoyance or setback, which even though minor makes one lose patience. straw in the wind A slight hint of something to come. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English, from Old English str aw. See ster-2 in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | straw y —ADJECTIVE
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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