Straw

subs. (old).—1.  Generic for worthlessness. Thus, NOT WORTH A STRAW = of no appreciable value; TO CARE NOT A STRAW = to care not at all; A MAN (or FACE) OF STRAW = a man of no standing or substance, a sham: in quot. 1700 = a fumbler; STRAW-BAIL = professional security; STRAW-SHOES (MAN or WITNESS) = a perjured witness; STRAW-BID = a fictitious offer; STRAW-BIDDER = a buyer who cannot fulfil his contract; STRAW-VOTE = a snatch vote; STRAWYARDER (nautical) = a land-lubber playing the sailor; spec. a blackleg doing shipboard duty during a strike.

  d. 1400.  CHAUCER, The Tale of Melibeus. And whan that they ben accompliced, yet ben they NOT WORTH A STRE.

  [?].  Nugæ Poeticæ, 48.

  c. 1500.  Roberte the Deuyll [HAZLITT, Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, I. 229, 261].

  1534.  UDALL, Ralph Roister Doister, iv. 3 [DODSLEY, Old Plays, 1874, iii. 128].

  c. 1540.  Doctour Doubble Ale, 10.

  1604.  SHAKESPEARE, Winter’s Tale, iii. 2. Mistake me not; no life, I prize it NOT A STRAW, but for mine honour.

  1675.  WYCHERLEY, The Country Wife, iv. 3. I will not be your drudge by day, to squire your wife about, and be your MAN OF STRAW or scarecrow only to pies and jays that would be nibbling at your forbidden fruit.

  1700.  DRYDEN, The Wife of Bath’s Tale.

  1705.  WARD, Hudibras Redivivus, I. i. 9. No Zealot valu’d if A STRAW. But mounted … like Hunter’s o’er a five-barr’d Gate.

  1740.  R. NORTH, Examen, 508. Off drops the vizor, and a FACE OF STRAW appears.

  1753.  RICHARDSON, The History of Sir Charles Grandison, vi. 387. All those, however, were MEN OF STRAW with me.

  1754.  FIELDING, Jonathan Wild, I. ii. He had likewise the remarkable honour of walking in Westminster-hall with a STRAW in his shoe.

  1772.  BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 198.

  1809.  MALKIN, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 104. The players are not MEN OF STRAW as I foolishly believed.

  1827.  BULWER-LYTTON, Pelham, iii. He CARED NOT A STRAW that he was a man of fortune, of family, of consequence; he must be a man of ton, or he was … no man.

  1848.  THACKERAY, The Book of Snobs, xviii. Why the deuce should Mrs. Botibol blow me a kiss?… I don’t CARE A STRAW for Mrs. Botibol.

  1876.  Telegram from Washington, 13 March [BARTLETT]. The House post-office committee has agreed to report Luttrell’s bill to prevent STRAW-BIDDING for mail contracts, and to punish STRAW-BIDDERS when caught.

  1892.  W. C. SYDNEY, England and the English in Eighteenth Century, ii. 275. Perjury at this time [c. 1750] was a regular trade…. The lawyer who required convenient witnesses … going into Westminster Hall … would address a STRAW-MAN with a ‘Don’t you remember?’ (at the same time holding out a fee).

  1902.  The Sporting Times, 1 Feb., 2 i. I DO NOT CARE TWO STRAWS what alleged people write about myself.

  2.  (common).—A long clay pipe; a churchwarden.

  3.  (common).—A straw hat. Also STRAWYARD, and (schools) STRAWER.

  PHRASES.  IN THE STRAW = in childbed (GROSE); TO BREAK A STRAW = to quarrel; TO LAY A STRAW = to pause; TO DRAW (or PICK) STRAWS = to show signs of sleep; A PAD IN THE STRAW = anything amiss; TO THROW STRAWS AGAINST THE WIND (COLES) = to essay the impossible. Also (proverbial) ‘A STRAW shows which way the wind blows’; ‘He gives STRAW to his dog, and bones to his ass’ (of one given to absurdities); ‘To make a block of a STRAW’; ‘To stumble at a STRAW and leap over a block,’ etc., etc.

  1526.  Pilgr. Perf. [Wynkin de Worde, 1531], 93. Lest of a STRAWE we make a block.

  1551.  STILL, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, v. 2. Ye perceive by this lingring there is a PAD IN THE STRAW.

  15[?].  COLLIER, Old Ballads [HALLIWELL]. Here lyes in dede the PADDE WITHIN THE STRAWE.

  1562.  J. HEYWOOD, Proverbs and Epigrams (1867), 76. s.v. Ye stumbled at a STRAWE, and lept ouer a blocke.

  1564.  UDALL, The Apophthegmes of Erasmus, 68. I Prophecie (quoth he) that Plato and Dionysius wil erre many daies to an ende BREAKE A STRAWE betwene them.

  1610.  HOLLAND, Camden, 141. But LAY A STRAW here, for in a trifling matter, others as well as my selfe, may thinke these notes sufficient, if not superfluous.

  1662.  FULLER, Worthies, ‘Lincoln.’ Our English plain Proverb de Puerperis, ‘they are IN THE STRAW,’ shows Feather-Beds to be of no ancient use among the common sort of our nation.

  1705.  WARD, Hudibras Redivivus, I. iv. 18. We sipp’d our Fuddle As Women IN THE STRAW do Caudle.

  1710.  SWIFT, Polite Conversation, iii. Lady Ans. I’m sure ’tis time for all honest folks to go to bed. Miss. Indeed my eyes DRAW STRAWS. (She’s almost asleep.)

  1785.  GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. STRAW. One eye DRAWS STRAW, and t’other serves the thatcher.

  1786.  BURGOYNE, The Heiress, i. 1. Mrs. Blandish. … You take care to send to all the lying-in ladies? Prompt. At their doors, madam, before the first load of straw.… [Reading his Memorandum as he goes out.] Ladies IN THE STRAW—ministers, &c.

  1796.  WOLCOT, Peter Pindar, 213, ‘Orson and Ellen,’ v.

  1839.  HOOD, Miss Kilmansegg and Her Precious Leg.