expression:

• a drowning man will catch at a straw - proverb

noun:

• straw skirt; grass skirt; traditionally worn by hunters and fishermen

noun:

• summer hat; straw hat

noun:

• yaki-fu; wheat gluten leavened with baking powder and baked into long bread-like sticks - Food term ➜ 麸【ふ】

noun:

• love-lies-bleeding (Amaranthus caudatus); tassel flower; velvet flower; foxtail amaranth; Inca wheat

noun:

• mooncake; disc-shaped confection of wheat-flour dough filled with bean paste, usu. eaten during Autumn in China

noun:

• tower-shaped wooden talisman
• apron-shaped straw deity to ward off disease

noun:

• short end of the stick; short straw; unlucky number; blank; bad bargain

noun:

• dark-skinned person; well-tanned person - derogatory term ➜ 白んぼ
• (wheat) smut
• stagehand (in kabuki); prompter ➜ 黒衣【くろご】

godan ~く verb / transitive:

• to hull (rice, barley, etc.); to pound (rice); to polish (rice); to stamp (ore)

noun:

• food (esp. staple food such as rice or wheat); provisions; rations; food supply

noun:

• trying out a new sword or blade (originally on someone, but now on soaked straw targets)

noun:

• grain (1-7000 of a pound, approx. 64.80 mg)
• grain (wheat, etc.) ➜ グレーンウイスキー

noun:

• kōji; malted rice; malt; malt-like material from growing mold on rice, barley, beans, etc. (used as a starter to make sake, miso, soy sauce, etc.)

noun:

• snow boots - esp. 雪靴
• yuki-gutsu; traditional Japanese snow boots made of straw - esp. 雪沓

noun:

• charcoal made from thin branches
• charcoal sold in bulk (instead of in straw bags) ➜ 散【ばら】

noun:

• confection of sweetened beans wrapped in wheat-flour dough (in the shape of a sword guard)

noun:

• woven straw mat (orig. made of wild rice leaves) - abbreviation
• beggar ➜ 薦被り
• Manchurian wild rice (Zizania latifolia) - archaism ➜ 真菰

ichidan verb:

• to sieve; to sift; to winnow; to separate (wheat from chaff)
• to screen (candidates)

noun:

• driving away moles by hitting the ground with straw bundles prepared by children (esp. as an annual event on January 15th)

noun:

• durum wheat (Triticum durum, Triticum turgidum durum)

noun:

• Edo-period form of torture in which criminals were stuffed into straw bags with their heads exposed, piled together, and whipped (commonly used on Christians)

noun:

• ear (e.g. of wheat) ［穂先］
• tip (e.g. of brush or spear); spearhead ➜ 矛先【ほこさき】

noun:

• New Year ornament (usu. of straw, fern leaves, seaweed and bitter orange fruit, and hung at the entrance of a home)

noun:

• straw bag; bale; sack

suffix / counter:

• counter for sacks; counter for bales; counter for bags ［ひょう］ - sometimes pronounced びょう, ぴょう