🥤 A drinking tube 🌾 Dried plant stalks 💛 A pale yellow 💛 Pale yellow 🌾 To cover bedding

to straw

2 7.2

To cover a place with dried plant stalks to make bedding for animals

verb
/strɔ/

: forrar con paja

Now, at thirteen, she let Bonny teach her how to lighten her hair to straw, how to braid it, and how to pluck her eyebrows and hide the faint mustache on her upper lip with makeup.

Examples

Each animal's stall was carefully strawed to ensure they had warm bedding to sleep on.
The farmer decided to straw the barn to keep the animals comfortable during the cold winter months.
Shen and Ko slept nearby, Mara cuddled against the youth, straw pony in her hand.

Fiction book (2000)
In densely populated rural areas, fuelwood is often in such short supply that people descend the energy ladder to dung and straw.

Academic text (1999)
Before the storm, she went to straw the chicken coop to protect the birds from the harsh weather.

Idioms

last straw

Informal

20 4.4

The final small problem that makes someone lose patience

the last straw

Informal

17 3.9

The final small problem that makes someone lose patience and act

to draw the short straw

Informal

6 6.2

To be chosen by chance to do an unpleasant task

making bricks without straw

Informal

1 9.9

Trying to do something without the things you need

to buy straw hat in winter

Informal

9.9

To make a poor choice at the wrong time

Compounds

straw man

20 7.0

An argument made to be easily attacked instead of the real one

straw poll

18 4.4

A quick not official vote that shows what people think

straw hat

14 1.3

A hat made of straw that protects the face from the sun

straw-colored

1 2.7

A pale yellow color like dry straw

straw vote

1 5.5

A quick unofficial vote to see if people support an idea

straw man

Jargon

1 8.2

A person who appears to own things but hides the real owner often for illegal acts

drinking straw

1 1.0

A thin tube often made of plastic or paper that you use to suck a drink into your mouth

straw boss

Jargon

8.7

A worker who leads other workers but has little power

straw foxglove

9.9

A European plant with soft yellow, tube-shaped flowers

straw wine

7.7

A sweet drink made from grapes dried on straw mats or in the sun

straw woman

9.9

A woman whose name is used to hide the true owner of something

straw man

5.5

A figure made of straw and old clothes used to scare birds from crops

straw mushroom

Indian

5.3

A small mushroom you can eat with a white cap and long stem used in Asian cooking

Surface Forms

straw infinitive

strawed past

strawed past participle

strawing present participle

straws third person singular

Etymology

The verb straw comes from the noun straw and originally meant 'to cover with straw', especially to make bedding for animals. So to straw a stall is to put down straw as a bed or warm cover.