What is "straw"

Straw \Straw\, v. t. To spread or scatter. See Strew, and Strow.
--Chaucer.

Straw \Straw\, n. [OE. straw, stre, stree, AS. stre['a]w, from the root of E. strew; akin to OFries. str[=e], D. stroo, G. stroh, OHG. str[=o], Icel. str[=a], Dan. straa, Sw. str[*a].

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.

   Note: Straw is often used in the formation of self-explaining compounds; as, straw-built, straw-crowned, straw-roofed, straw-stuffed, and the like.

   Man of straw, an effigy formed by stuffing the garments of a man with straw; hence, a fictitious person; an irresponsible person; a puppet.

Old English streaw (rare) "stems or stalks of certain species of grains," apparently literally "that which is scattered or strewn," related to streowian (see strew), from Proto-Germanic *strawam "that which is scattered" (cognates: Old Norse stra, Danish straa, Swedish strå, Old Saxon stro, Old Frisian stre, Old Dutch, Old High German stro, Dutch stroo, German Stroh "straw"), from PIE *stere- "to spread" (see structure (n.)). The notion perhaps is of dried grain stalks strewn on a floor as carpeting or bedding.\n

\nAs a type of what is trifling or unimportant, attested from late 13c. Meaning "hollow tube through which a drink is sucked" is recorded from 1851. To draw straws as a means of deciding something is recorded from 1779 (the custom probably is older). As an adjective, "made of straw," mid-15c.; hence "false, sham." Straw poll is from 1932; earlier straw vote (1866). Straw hat first attested mid-15c. To clutch (or grasp or catch) at straws (1748) is what a drowning man proverbially would do. The last straw (1836 apart from the full phrase) is from the proverbial image: "it is the last straw that breaks the camel's back" (or, less often, the mare's, the horse's, or the elephant's), an image in use in English by 1755.\n\nLet it not, however, be inferred that taxation cannot be pushed too far : it is, as the Oriental proverb says, the last straw that overloads the camel ; a small addition, if ill-timed, may overturn the whole.

["The Scots Magazine," April 1799]

a. 1 Made of straw. 2 Of a pale, yellowish beige colour, like that of a dried straw. n. 1 (context countable English) A dried stalk of a cereal plant. 2 (context uncountable English) Such dried stalks considered collectively. 3 (context countable English) A drinking straw. 4 a pale, yellowish beige colour, like that of a dried straw. 5 (context figurative English) Anything proverbially worthless; the least possible thing.

adj. of a pale yellow color like straw; straw colored

1. v. cover or provide with or as if with straw; "cows were strawed to weather the snowstorm"

2. spread by scattering ("straw" is archaic); "strew toys all over the carpet" [syn: strew]

1. n. plant fiber used e.g. for making baskets and hats or as fodder

2. material consisting of seed coverings and small pieces of stem or leaves that have been separated from the seeds [syn: chaff, husk, shuck, stalk, stubble]

3. a yellow tint; yellow diluted with white [syn: pale yellow]

4. a thin paper or plastic tube used to such liquids into the mouth [syn: drinking straw]

Straw is an agricultural by-product, the dry stalks of cereal plants, after the grain and chaff have been removed. Straw makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has many uses, including fuel, livestock bedding and fodder, thatching and basket-making. It is usually gathered and stored in a straw bale, which is a bundle of straw tightly bound with twine or wire. Bales may be square, rectangular, or round, depending on the type of baler used.

Straw is an agricultural by-product of cereal plants.

Straw may also refer to:

• Straw (colour)
• Drinking straw

Straw were an English post-Britpop band that released one album, Shoplifting, in 1999.

Straw is a colour, a tone of pale yellow, the colour of straw.

The first recorded use of straw as a colour name in English was in 1589.

A cryopreservation straw is a small storage device used for the cryogenic storage of liquid samples, often in a biobank or other collection of samples. Their most common application is for storage of sperm for in-vitro fertilization.

Ideally such straws should be made of a material that is chemically inert, biocompatible and have physical characteristics that make them resistant to ultra-low temperatures and pressures created by their storage conditions, resulting in the expansion of liquids and liquid nitrogen.

Straw (a.k.a. "Straw: The Game that Broke the Camel's Back") is an Arabian-nights-themed card game designed by Richard James (of Evertide Games) and published by Alderac Entertainment Group in 2008, with artwork by Octographics. The game is packaged with a rule book in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish, but the cards themselves use numbers and symbols instead of just text.

Players draw from a common draw deck and maintain a hand of 4 cards representing items of varying weight. At a rate of 1 card per turn, players place cards onto the camel until the camel's back breaks from carrying too much weight, restoring a new card to their hand from the deck afterward. The person who breaks the camel's back scores 0 and all other players score the weight in their hand. Hand management is the key mechanic in this multi-round survival-style game.