Word.ws English Dictionary

straw that stirs the drink

straw that stirs the drink noun: the person who stimulates or inspires a group; the major factor affecting a trend or set of developments.

Noun

straw that stirs the drink (plural straws that stir the drink)

  1. (idiomatic, almost always preceded by the) The person who stimulates or inspires a group; the major factor affecting a trend or set of developments.
    • Reggie Jackson . . . apparently presumed his charisma would assume command of the clubhouse. . . . " I'm the straw that stirs the drink," Reggie Jackson is quoted by Robert Ward in Sport magazine. "It all comes back to me."1977 May 26, Dave Anderson, “Reggie's woes”, in Star-News, North Carolina, USA, retrieved 19 Oct 2012, page 7D
    • "We have priced in 4 percent growth in the fourth quarter . . . ," said Alan Levenson, money market economist at UBS Securities. "Growth is the straw that stirs the drink."1993 December 7, Jonathan Fuerbringer, “Credit Markets: Bond Prices Continuing to Rally”, in New York Times, retrieved 19 Oct 2012

Synonyms of straw that stirs the drink

Forms of straw that stirs the drink

pluralstraws that stir the drink

Origin of straw that stirs the drink

Possibly originating in 1977 with a widely-reported self-descriptive remark by baseball player Reggie Jackson.

Questions about straw that stirs the drink

What does straw that stirs the drink mean?
Straw that stirs the drink means the person who stimulates or inspires a group; the major factor affecting a trend or set of developments.
What part of speech is straw that stirs the drink?
Straw that stirs the drink is a noun.
What is the plural of straw that stirs the drink?
The plural of straw that stirs the drink is straws that stir the drink.

Words near straw that stirs the drink in the dictionary

  1. straw purchases
  2. straw shoe
  3. straw shoes
  4. straw stem
  5. straw stems
  6. straw that stirs the drink
  7. straw tick
  8. straw ticks
  9. straw vote
  10. straw votes
  11. straw wine

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: straw that stirs the drink (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-straw that stirs the drink.ogg.

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