straw Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun plant fiber used e.g. for making baskets and hats or as fodder
  2. noun material consisting of seed coverings and small pieces of stem or leaves that have been separated from the seeds
    stubble; chaff; husk; stalk; shuck.
  3. noun a variable yellow tint; dull yellow, often diluted with white
    pale yellow; wheat.
  4. noun a thin paper or plastic tube used to suck liquids into the mouth
    drinking straw.
  5. verb cover or provide with or as if with straw
    • cows were strawed to weather the snowstorm
  6. verb spread by scattering ("straw" is archaic)
    strew.
    • strew toys all over the carpet
  7. adjective satellite of a pale yellow color like straw; straw-colored

WordNet

Straw transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To spread or scatter. See Strew, and Strow. Chaucer.
Straw noun
Etymology
OE. straw, stre, stree, AS. streáw, from the root of E. strew; akin to OFries. stre, D. stroo, G. stroh, OHG. stro, Icel. stra, Dan. straa, Sw. strå. *166. See Strew.
Definitions
  1. A stalk or stem of certain species of grain, pulse, etc., especially of wheat, rye, oats, barley, more rarely of buckwheat, beans, and pease.
  2. The gathered and thrashed stalks of certain species of grain, etc.; as, a bundle, or a load, of rye straw.
  3. Anything proverbially worthless; the least possible thing; a mere trifle.
    I set not a straw by thy dreamings. Chaucer.
    ✍ Straw is often used in the formation of self-explaining compounds; as, straw-built, straw-crowned, straw-roofed, straw-stuffed, and the like.

Webster 1913