jackstraw, spillikin
(noun) a thin strip of wood used in playing the game of jackstraws
Source: WordNet® 3.1
jackstraw (plural jackstraws)
(usually plural) One of the pieces used for the game variously called jackstraws or pick-up-sticks.
(dated) An insignificant person.
• (game piece): spillikin
jackstraw (not comparable)
Resembling a bundle of jackstraws that has been strewn on a surface.
(obsolete, of a person) Of no substance or worth.
Source: Wiktionary
Jack"straw`, n.
1. An effigy stuffed with straw; a scarecrow; hence, a man without property or influence. Milton.
2. One of a set of straws of strips of ivory, bone, wood, etc., for playing a child's game, the jackstraws being thrown confusedly together on a table, to be gathered up singly by a hooked instrument, without touching or disturbing the rest of the pile. See Spilikin.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
23 February 2025
(noun) an advantageous purchase; “she got a bargain at the auction”; “the stock was a real buy at that price”
The earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking as the modern beverage appeared in modern-day Yemen. In the middle of the 15th century in Sufi shrines where coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed for drinking. The Yemenis procured the coffee beans from the Ethiopian Highlands.
