straw

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
straw/strɔː/

▶noun

• 1 dried stalks of grain, used as fodder or for thatching, packing, or weaving.

• 2 a single dried stalk of grain.

• 3 a thin hollow tube of paper or plastic for sucking drink from a glass or bottle.

• 4 a pale yellow colour like that of straw.

• 5 [with neg.] anything or at all: he didn't care a straw if they disliked him.

– phrases
clutch (or grasp or catch) at straws resort in desperation to unlikely or inadequate means of salvation. [from the proverb a drowning man will clutch at a straw.]
draw the short straw be chosen to perform an unpleasant task.
the last (or final) straw a further minor difficulty that comes after a series of difficulties and makes a situation unbearable. [from the proverb the last straw breaks the (laden) camel's back.]
a straw in the wind a slight hint of future developments.

– derivatives
strawy adjective.

– origin OE strēaw, of Gmc origin; rel. to strew.