straw

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun Stalks of threshed grain, used as bedding and food for animals, for thatching, and for weaving or braiding, as into baskets.
• noun A single stalk of threshed grain.
• noun Pieces or a piece of natural or artificial strawlike material.
• noun Something, such as a hat or basket, made of straw.
• noun A slender tube used for sucking up a liquid.
• noun Something of minimal value or importance.
• noun The least valuable bit; a jot.
• noun Something with too little substance to provide support in a crisis.
• adjective Of, relating to, or made of straw.
• adjective Containing or used for straw, as a barn or feeding trough.
• adjective Of the color of straw; yellowish.
• adjective Of, relating to, or constituting a straw man.
• adjective Apparently legitimate but actually intended as a cover for illegal or secret activity.
• idiom (final/last) The final annoyance or setback, which even though minor makes one no longer able to endure something.
• idiom (straw in the wind) A slight hint of something to come.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun 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.
• noun Such stalks collectively, especially after drying and threshing: as, a load of straw. In this sense a collective without plural.
• noun Figuratively, anything proverbially worthless; the least possible thing.
• noun A slight fact, taken as an instance in proof of a tendency.
• noun A clay pipe, especially a long one.
• noun Same as straw-needle.
• noun In entomology, a stick-insect; a walking-stick.
• Made or composed of straw: as, a straw hat.
• Sham; fictitious; useless: as, a straw bid. Compare straw bail, under bail, 5.
• To furnish or bind with straw; apply straw to.
• An obsolete or dialectal form of strew.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A stalk or stem of certain species of grain, pulse, etc., especially of wheat, rye, oats, barley, more rarely of buckwheat, beans, and pease.
• noun The gathered and thrashed stalks of certain species of grain, etc..
• noun Anything proverbially worthless; the least possible thing; a mere trifle.
• noun an effigy formed by stuffing the garments of a man with straw; hence, a fictitious person; an irresponsible person; a puppet.
• noun [Colloq. U.S.] worthless bail, as being given by irresponsible persons.
• noun [Colloq. U.S.] a worthless bid; a bid for a contract which the bidder is unable or unwilling to fulfill.
• noun (Zoöl.) the pampas cat.
• noun the color of dry straw, being a delicate yellow.
• noun a drain filled with straw.
• noun a strip formed by plaiting straws, used for making hats, bonnets, etc.
• noun [Slang] to be brought to bed, as a pregnant woman.
• transitive verb To spread or scatter. See strew, and strow.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun countable A dried stalk of a cereal plant.
• noun uncountable Such dried stalks considered collectively.
• noun countable A drinking straw.
• noun a pale, yellowish beige colour, like that of a dried straw.
• adjective Made of straw.
• adjective Of a pale, yellowish beige colour, like that of a dried straw.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a thin paper or plastic tube used to suck liquids into the mouth
• verb cover or provide with or as if with straw