Husk vs Straw - What's the difference?
husk | straw |
The dry, leafy or stringy exterior of certain vegetables or fruits, which must be removed before eating the meat inside
Any form of useless, dried-up, and subsequently worthless exterior of something
The supporting frame of a run of millstones.
To say huskily, to utter in a husky voice.
* The French captain did not immediately respond; he looked at his men with a miserable expression [...]; still he hesitated, drooped, and finally husked , "Je me rends," with a look still more wretched. — (Naomi Novik), "His Majesty's Dragon"
(countable) A dried stalk of a cereal plant.
(uncountable) Such dried stalks considered collectively.
(countable) A drinking straw.
a pale, yellowish beige colour, like that of a dried straw.
(figurative) Anything proverbially worthless; the least possible thing.
*XIX c. , recorded by Francis James Child,
*:‘For thy sword and thy bow I care not a straw ,
*:Nor all thine arrows to boot;
*:If I get a knop upon thy bare scop,
*:Thou canst as well shite as shoote.’
*1857 , Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers :
*:He also decided, which was more to his purpose, that Eleanor did not care a straw for him, and that very probably she did care a straw for his rival.
*1881 , :
*:To be deeply interested in the accidents of our existence, to enjoy keenly the mixed texture of human experience, rather leads a man to disregard precautions, and risk his neck against a straw .
Made of straw.
Of a pale, yellowish beige colour, like that of a dried straw.
As a noun husk
is the dry, leafy or stringy exterior of certain vegetables or fruits, which must be removed before eating the meat inside.As a verb husk
is to remove husks from or husk can be to say huskily, to utter in a husky voice.As a proper noun straw is
.husk
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) . More at (l), (l). Alternate etymology derives husk from Low German .)Noun
(wikipedia husk) (en noun)- A coconut has a very thick husk .
- His attorney was a dried-up husk of a man.
Etymology 2
Partly imitative, partly from Etymology 1, above, influenced by (husky).Verb
(en verb)See also
* huskyReferences
The Australian Pocket Oxford Dictionary , 2nd Ed., Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1978 ----straw
English
Noun
Derived terms
* * strawberryAdjective
(-)- straw hat
