windlestraw
Americannoun
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a withered stalk of any of various grasses.
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any of various long-stalked species of grass.
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any tall, thin person.
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any light or flimsy material or object.
noun
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the dried stalk of any of various grasses
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anything weak or feeble, esp a thin unhealthy person
Etymology
Origin of windlestraw
before 1000; Old English windelstrēaw (not attested in ME). See windle, straw
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Lever it!” cried the gruff voice, “if you have the backbone of a windlestraw, lever!”
From The Dew of Their Youth by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett
My dear man of moods! my good vagabond! my windlestraw of circumstance! constant only to one ideal—the unattainable perfection in a kind of roguish art.
From Doom Castle by Neil Munro
But before I found them I encountered a windlestraw which showed which way blew the wind and gave promise of a very gale.
From The Jacket (Star-Rover) by Jack London
I knew the windlestraw, Guy de Villehardouin, a raw young provincial, come up the first time to Court, but a fiery little cockerel for all of that.
From The Jacket (Star-Rover) by Jack London
"Ai-ee!" cried the accused, still shielding his neck and cowering in the dust—a thin ragged windlestraw of a youth, flaxen-headed, hatchet-faced, with eyes set like a hare's.
From Sir John Constantine Memoirs of His Adventures At Home and Abroad and Particularly in the Island of Corsica: Beginning with the Year 1756 by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
