Used in brick-making (Exodus 5:7-18). Used figuratively in Job 41:27; Isaiah 11:7; 25:10; 65:25.

Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

1. (v. t.) To spread or scatter. See Strow.

2. (n.) A stalk or stem of certain species of grain, pulse, etc., especially of wheat, rye, oats, barley, more rarely of buckwheat, beans, and peas.

3. (n.) The gathered and thrashed stalks of certain species of grain, etc.; as, a bundle, or a load, of rye straw.

4. (n.) Anything proverbially worthless; the least possible thing; a mere trifle.