Meanings
- archaicidiomaticslangConfined to bed because of pregnancy.
Excuse the blots and scrawl of this letter. I am writing in an astonishing hurry and my secretary is so much engaged in copying public, that he has no time to devote to private letters—and my female secretary is at present in the straw with a young gentleman who sends his compliments to you.
1789, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney to James Madison, 28 March, in The Documentary History of the First Federal Elections 1788–1790, vol. 1, ed. Merrill Jensen and Robert A. Becker, University of Wisconsin Press, 1976, page 2181 more example
She was shown the woman "in the straw," and performed her office; but when ready to dress the babe, an old woman, (who, according to the narration, appears to have been the nurse,) put a box of ointment into her hand, requiring her to anoint the child all over with it, but to be careful that it did not touch her own person; she prudently complied, though wondering at the motive.
1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 311
Cite this entry
in the straw. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/in%20the%20straw
“in the straw.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/in%20the%20straw. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “in the straw,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/in%20the%20straw.
Source: in the straw on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.