To decide something by picking at random from straws of different lengths. The person who pulls the shortest straw is usually the one chosen for something, often an unpleasant task. Let's draw straws to decide who will go first—it's the only fair way to do it.What are you doing? We drew straws, and I'm supposed to go first!None of us wanted to be the one to tell Mrs. Maddox about her broken window, so we drew straws, and Brandon got stuck doing it.
Also, draw lots. Decide by a lottery using straws of different lengths. For example, Let's draw straws to see who will write the first draft. The lots version dates from the 1400s, whereas straws dates from the 1800s. Both have replaced the still older draw cuts. Another variant is draw the short straw, meaning to be the one so selected for a particular task.
If you draw straws, you decide who will do something or have something by choosing pieces of straw or something similar with different lengths. We drew straws for the crash helmets.We drew straws for who had to make dinner, and I lost.
The dance teacher is in troubled mood followed the Friday night crowds' shouts of "get Grace out" and so, after almost 10 hours of standing still, the contest was decided by everyone's favourite elimination method - drawing straws.
Democratic candidates, portrayed by the media as knock-kneed Barney Fifes, drawing straws to determine which one would face the unhappy chore of heading out into the noonday sun to duel the great gunslinger, scampered across America, brandishing credentials and smiles to audiences that, in the summer of 2003, were neither particularly large nor hopeful.
Ken recalled that in the early days the "most exciting part of the day was waiting for the mailman to come to see if anyone had sent an order or a check, or when we met a cash-flow crisis by drawing straws to see what partner went off salary."
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