jackstraws

Noun

jackstraw (plural jackstraws)

1. (plural-normally) One of the pieces used for the game called jackstraws or pick-up sticks.
   • 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.1856, Matthew C. Perry, Francis L. Hawks, chapter 23, in Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan, volume 1, Washington: A.O.P. Nicholson, page 466

   Synonyms:

   spillikin

2. (dated) An insignificant person.
   • [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...1692, John Milton, “The Author’s Preface”, in [Joseph Washington], transl., A Defence of the People of England, […]: In Answer to Salmasius’s Defence of the King, [London?]: [s.n.], →OCLC, pages...

See all 4 meanings of jackstraw