straw

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Stalks of threshed grain, used as bedding and food for animals, for thatching, and for weaving or braiding, as into baskets.
2. n. A single stalk of threshed grain.
3. n. Something, such as a hat or basket, made of straw.
4. n. A slender tube used for sucking up a liquid.
5. n. Something of minimal value or importance.
6. n. Something with too little substance to provide support in a crisis: Near the end we were grasping at straws.
7. adj. Of, relating to, or made of straw: a straw mat.
8. adj. Containing or used for straw, as a barn or feeding trough.
9. adj. Of the color of straw; yellowish.
10. adj. Having little or no value or substance; unimportant.
11. adj. Of, relating to, or constituting a straw man.
12. idiom. final The final annoyance or setback, which even though minor makes one lose patience.
13. idiom. straw in the wind A slight hint of something to come.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The stalk or stem of certain species of grain, pulse, etc., chiefly of wheat, rye, oats, barley, buckwheat, and pease, cut or broken off (and usually dry); also, a piece of such a stem.
2. n. Such stalks collectively, especially after drying and threshing: as, a load of straw. In this sense a collective without plural.
3. n. Figuratively, anything proverbially worthless; the least possible thing.
4. n. A slight fact, taken as an instance in proof of a tendency.
5. n. A clay pipe, especially a long one.
6. n. Same as straw-needle.
7. n. In entomology, a stick-insect; a walking-stick.
8. Made or composed of straw: as, a straw hat.
9. Sham; fictitious; useless: as, a straw bid. Compare straw bail, under bail, 5.
10. To furnish or bind with straw; apply straw to.
11. An obsolete or dialectal form of strew.

Wiktionary

1. n. countable A dried stalk of a cereal plant.
2. n. uncountable Such dried stalks considered collectively.
3. n. countable A drinking straw.
4. n. a pale, yellowish beige colour, like that of a dried straw.
5. adj. Made of straw.
6. adj. Of a pale, yellowish beige colour, like that of a dried straw.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To spread or scatter. See strew, and strow.
2. n. A stalk or stem of certain species of grain, pulse, etc., especially of wheat, rye, oats, barley, more rarely of buckwheat, beans, and pease.
3. n. The gathered and thrashed stalks of certain species of grain, etc..
4. n. Anything proverbially worthless; the least possible thing; a mere trifle.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a thin paper or plastic tube used to suck liquids into the mouth
2. v. cover or provide with or as if with straw
3. n. material consisting of seed coverings and small pieces of stem or leaves that have been separated from the seeds
4. n. plant fiber used e.g. for making baskets and hats or as fodder
5. n. a variable yellow tint; dull yellow, often diluted with white
6. adj. of a pale yellow color like straw; straw-colored
7. v. spread by scattering (