straw
plant fiber used e.g. for making baskets and hats or as fodder
How often you will meet it
Rank 2,866 of 71,295 words measured. It occurs 5,754 times across 155,139 chapters — 0.003% of every word in the library.
What it means
noun
- plant fiber used e.g. for making baskets and hats or as fodder
- material consisting of seed coverings and small pieces of stem or leaves that have been separated from the seeds also: chaff, husk, shuck, stalk, stubble
- a variable yellow tint; dull yellow, often diluted with white also: pale yellow, wheat
- a thin paper or plastic tube used to suck liquids into the mouth also: drinking straw
adjective
- of a pale yellow color like straw; straw-colored
verb
- cover or provide with or as if with straw cows were strawed to weather the snowstorm
- spread by scattering ("straw" is archaic) also: strew strawstrew toys all over the carpet
straw in real books
Each sentence below was written by a published author and is taken from a different book in our library. Open one to read the passage it came from, with narration.
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Even the straw of the mattress had been pulled out and examined.
The Lerouge Case · Emile Gaboriau · Chapter 1
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He leaned over the balustrade, and saw: very plainly a soldier lying prone on the straw.
The Countess of Saint Geran Celebrated Crimes · Alexandre Dumas · Chapter 1
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Her large picture-hat of pale-blue straw, with its big gauze bow and crushed roses, had a slightly exaggerated Parisian air.
Emily Fox-Seton · Frances Hodgson Burnett · Chapter 1
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Suppose I told you, that, in his loyal simplicity, he was but a man of straw in the hands of skillful knaves?
Other People's Money · Emile Gaboriau · Chapter 1
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The poor Prince lay chained on a bed of straw, trying to read a book by the light of a single candle.
The Firelight Fairy Book · Henry Beston · Chapter 1