Word.ws English Dictionary

drawn the short straw

drawn the short straw is the past participle of draw the short straw.

Meaning of draw the short straw

Verb

draw the short straw (third-person singular simple present draws the short straw, present participle drawing the short straw, simple past drew the short straw, past participle drawn the short straw)

  1. To select the shortest straw or other object while drawing straws.
  2. (idiomatic) To be selected to do an undesirable task (by drawing the shortest straw or otherwise).
    • I drew the short straw and got stuck doing the whole project alone.

Questions about drawn the short straw

What is drawn the short straw the past participle of?
Drawn the short straw is the past participle of draw the short straw.

Words near drawn the short straw in the dictionary

  1. drawn rein
  2. drawn stumps
  3. drawn the cloth
  4. drawn the line
  5. drawn the long bow
  6. drawn the short straw
  7. drawn through
  8. drawn to a close
  9. drawn to an end
  10. drawn together
  11. drawn up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: drawn the short straw (page history and authors); draw the short straw (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “drawn the short straw.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/drawn_the_short_straw. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.