Chapter Store to Straw of S by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

one.
   Not to care a straw for one. In Latin, “[Aliquem] nihili, flocci, nauci, pili, teruncii facere.” To hold one in no esteem; to defy one as not worth your steel.
   Not worth a straw. Worthless. In French, “Je n'en donnerais pas un fétu (or un zeste).” Not worth a rap; not worth a pin's point; not worth a fig (q.v.); not worth a twopenny dam, etc.
   She wears a straw in her ear. She is looking out for another husband. This is a French expression, and refers to the ancient custom of placing a straw between the ears of horses for sale.
   The last straw. The only hope left; the last penny.
   'Tis the last straw that breaks the horse's (or camel's) back. In weighing articles, as salt, tea, sugar, etc., it is the last which turns the scale; and there is an ultimate point of endurance beyond which calamity breaks a man down.
   To carry off the straw (“Enlever la paille”). To bear off the belle. The pun is between “pal,” a slang word for a favourite, and “paille,” straw. The French palot means a “pal.” Thus Gervais says-

“Mais, oncore un coup, man palot.”
Le Coup d'OEil Purin, p. 64.

   To catch at a straw. To hope a forlorn hope. A drowning man will catch at a straw.
   To make bricks without straw. To attempt to do something without the proper and necessary materials. The allusion is to the exaction of the Egyptian taskmasters mentioned in Exodus v. 6-14. Even to the present, “bricks” in India, etc., are made of mud and straw dried in the sun. To make plum-puddings without plums.
   To stumble at a straw. “Nodos in scirpo quoerere.” To look for knots in a bulrush (which has none). To stumble in a plain way.
   To throw straws against the wind. To contend uselessly and feebly against what is irresistible; to sweep back the Atlantic with a besom.