straw man
Noun

straw man

  1. A doll or scarecrow, particularly one stuffed with straw.
  2. (figurative) An innocuous person or someone of nominal or lesser importance, as a front man or straw boss.
  3. (figurative) An insubstantial concept, idea, endeavor or argument, particularly one deliberately set up to be weakly supported, so that it can be easily knocked down; especially to impugn the strength of any related or contrasted thing or idea.
    Antonyms: steelman
  4. (figurative, engineering, business) An outline serving as an initial proposal for a project, usually refined iteratively.
    a tentative straw-man spec
  5. Synonym of straw buyer#English|straw buyer
    • 2000, John W. Reilly, The Language of Real Estate (page 381)
      If a broker or a salesperson attempts to use a straw man to purchase property for which he or she has a listing, the real estate person must specifically disclose in writing to the seller this relationship with the buyer.
Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

straw man

  1. To falsely attribute an insubstantial argument (a straw man argument) to another through direct declaration or indirect implication; to put words in someone's mouth.
    cot en
    Person A: "Cats have claws."
    Person B: "Not all cats have claws: some are declawed."
    Person A: "Don't straw man me; I never said all."



This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
Offline English dictionary