a thin strip of wood used in the game of spillikins
2. informal
an insignificant person
jackstraw in American English
(ˈdʒækˌstrɔ)
noun
1. Obsolete
straw man (sense 2)
2.
a narrow strip of wood, plastic, etc. used in a game (jackstraws) played by tossing a number of such strips into a jumbled heap and trying to remove them one at a time without moving any of the others