straw

Meaning

Noun

1. (countable) A dried stalk of a cereal plant.
2. (uncountable) Such dried stalks considered collectively; this bulk matter may be a chief salable product, a by-product, fodder, bedding, or green manure, depending on region and on current market conditions.
3. (countable) A drinking straw.
4. (countable, uncommon, uncountable) A pale, yellowish beige colour, like that of a dried straw.
5. (countable, figuratively, uncountable) Anything proverbially worthless; the least possible thing.
6. (countable, uncountable) A straw owner.

Adj

1. (not-comparable) Made of straw.
2. (not-comparable) Of a pale, yellowish beige colour, like that of a dried straw.
3. (figuratively, not-comparable) Imaginary, but presented as real.

Verb

1. To lay straw around plants to protect them from frost.
2. (obsolete, slang) To sell straws on the streets in order to cover the giving to the purchaser of things usually banned, such as pornography.

Synonyms

hay

grass

thatch

chaff

haulm

husk

stubble

strew

drinking straw

stalk

shuck

bestrew

rice straw

pale yellow

cane

wheat

splinter

sprinkle

stem

stipe

straw hat

tube

untamed

weed

whistle

wild

worthless

yellowish

straw-colored

dry grass

made of straw

thatching grass

pennywhistle

bespangle

tallgrass

chips

culm

dot

dry

dust

fife

fodder

glume

herbs

horn

mattress

pipe

reed

scape

siren

Translations

paille

paja

paglia

Stroh

palha

stro

Strohhalm

palla

saman

άχυρο

ka

cannuccia

قش

Pronounced as (IPA)

/stɹɔː/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: straw

Inherited from Old English: strēaw

Cognate with Dutch: stro

Cognate with Walloon: strin

Cognate with German: Stroh

Cognate with Norwegian: -

Cognate with Swedish: strå

Cognate with Albanian: shtrohë

In summary

From Middle English straw, from Old English strēaw, from Proto-West Germanic *strau, from Proto-Germanic *strawą (“that which is strewn, straw”), from Proto-Indo-European *strew- (“to spread around, strew”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Sträi (“straw”), West Frisian strie (“straw”), Dutch stro (“straw”), German Low German Stroh (“straw”), German Stroh (“straw”), Danish, Norwegian and Swedish strå (“straw”), Icelandic strá (“straw”), Walloon strin, Albanian shtrohë (“kennel”).

Sentences

Pitch the straw through the door of the stable .