to draw the short straw
6
6.2
- idiom
- Informal
:
sacar la paja corta
- When they decided who would clean the dishes, I was unlucky enough to draw the short straw.
- draw the short straw and get
- just drew the short straw
And the dog teammate and I, my team, we drew the short straw and we're the first ones to enter this compound.
- And the dog teammate and I, my team, we drew the short straw and we're the first ones to enter this compound.
- And then I was the one who I drew the short straw.
Examples
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In our group project, John had to draw the short straw and present to the class alone.
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Look, Johnny, I know we've both drawn the short straw here.
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How did we draw the short straw?
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Did she draw the short straw?
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- Yeah, well, I drew the short straw.
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So look who drew the short straw today.
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No, we just drew the short straw.
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Look, if I draw the short straw, then I'll do it.
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Someone always draws the short straw.
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My mother drew the short straw a couple of times but kept pushing us forward.
Blog text (3)
Synonyms
8
7.1
To get a worse or unfair result than others
1
7.9
To put someone into a bad or difficult situation because of bad luck
To end up by chance with an unpleasant task or in a worse position
Surface Forms
Morphology
The verb 'draw' (to choose by chance) together with 'short' (less than others) gives learners a reasonable cue that selection by luck is involved and that the short item is unfavorable. However, the link to being assigned an unpleasant task relies on the cultural practice of 'drawing straws' and cannot be fully derived from the literal words alone, so the expression is only partially predictable.
Etymology
Draw the short straw comes from a simple game: people hold several straws so the ends look the same and each person pulls one, and the person who takes the short straw loses. So today, to draw the short straw means 'to be chosen by chance to do an unpleasant or hard task'.