Straw has 11 different meanings across 4 categories:
Noun · Verb · Adjective · Proper Noun
plant fiber used e.g. for making baskets and hats or as fodder
"The weaver carefully braided the dry straw into a wide-brimmed hat to protect him from the sun."
a variable yellow tint; dull yellow, often diluted with white
"The faded curtains had taken on a straw hue from years of exposure to sunlight."
a thin paper or plastic tube used to suck liquids into the mouth
"She asked me to pass her the straw so she could finish her soda without making a mess."
A dried stalk of a cereal plant.
"The farmer used bundles of straw to cover the hay bales and protect them from rain."
In plain English: A straw is a thin, hollow tube used for drinking liquids from containers without using your mouth directly on them.
"The baker used wheat straw to bake into bread last week."
Usage: Use the noun form when referring to the dried stalks used as bedding or packing material, distinct from the verb meaning to cover crops with this material for protection. Avoid confusing it with "strawberry," which is an unrelated fruit despite sharing the same root word in some dialects.
To lay straw around plants to protect them from frost.
"The gardener laid a thick layer of straw around the tender seedlings before the first hard frost arrived."
In plain English: To straw something means to fill it with dry stalks of grass, usually for bedding animals.
"Don't straw your hair with that heatless tool before you go out tonight."
of a pale yellow color like straw; straw-colored
"The old horse had a long mane that was distinctly straw-colored in the sunlight."
Made of straw.
"The thatched roof was made of golden straw."
A surname, from nicknames.
"The historian noted that Straw was a common English surname derived from medieval nicknames for people who harvested hay."
The word "straw" comes from the Old English strēaw, which originally meant "that which is strewn." It traveled into modern usage through Middle English while retaining its core sense of scattered plant material.