Meaning of jackstraw | Babel Free

Definitions

1. One of the pieces used for the game called jackstraws or pick-up sticks.
   plural-normally
2. An insignificant person.
   dated

Examples

“It was a cheerful reminder of one’s childhood, and another bond of sympathy between the various branches of the human race⟳, however remotely separated from each other, to find⟳ the little shaven-pated lads playing ball in the streets of Hakodadi, or jackstraws within the domestic circle at home.”

“If I wasn’t a good Christian, it’s on my naked knees I’d be saying my prayers and paters to every jackstraw you have⟳ roofing your head, and every stony pebble is paving the laneway to your door.”

“It was late February before the expedition entered the Coldwater, early March⟳ before it approached the Tallahatchie. Here it encountered afresh felled trees like⟳ endless bundles of jackstraws, thrown vigorously, crossed under water at every imaginable angle.”

“The landlord strode on jackstraw legs across the room.”

“[They] had rather be called Sons of the Earth, provided it be their own⟳ Earth, (their own⟳ Native Country) and act like⟳ Men at home, then, being deſtitute of Houſe or Land⟳, to relieve the neceſſities of Nature in a Foreign Country, by ſelling of Smoke⟳, as thou doſt, an inconſiderable Fellow, and a Jack-ſtraw, and who dependeſt upon the good will of thy Maſters for a poor Stipend; [...]”

“At the start⟳ of 1950, he was a jackstraw in Washington. Then he discovered Communism—almost by inadvertence, as Columbus discovered America, as James Marshall discovered California gold. By the spring⟳ of the year, he was a towering figure⟳ […]”

CEFR level