Jack Straw
Preserved but no longer current.
The name (or nickname) of one of the leaders in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. There is an allusion to him in Chaucer's Nun's Prologue (1386), and the name soon came to signify a man of straw, a worthless sort of person.
Tên của một trong những người lãnh đạo cuộc nổi dậy của nông dân năm 1381
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Jack Straw” mean?
The name (or nickname) of one of the leaders in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. There is an allusion to him in Chaucer's Nun's Prologue (1386), and the name soon came to signify a man of straw, a worthless sort of person.
Is “Jack Straw” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.