straw man

Definition of straw man

1 : a weak or imaginary opposition (such as an argument or adversary) set up only to be easily confuted

2 : a person set up to serve as a cover for a usually questionable transaction

Examples of straw man in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web But the claim is a straw man: there is no epidemic of pandemic denial. — Jacob Hale Russell, STAT, "Let’s put the straw man of pandemic denial out of his misery," 23 Dec. 2020 The Axe debuted on the eve of a baseball game between the universities in 1899, when Stanford students used it to decapitate a straw man adorned in Cal blue and gold. — Rusty Simmons, SFChronicle.com, "Cal and Stanford’s rivalry in a pandemic feels like anything but a Big Game week," 26 Nov. 2020 Too often, a debate can turn into trading arguments about whose straw man fell down the slippery slope onto Occam’s razor the most. — Eric Ravenscraft, Wired, "How to Win Any Debate," 29 Sep. 2020 Richard Warshak, a leading proponent of parental alienation theory, has written that many critics misunderstand the theory or create a straw man to dismiss it. — Kathryn Joyce, Longreads, "She Said Her Husband Hit Her. She Lost Custody of Their Kids," 10 Aug. 2020 In Carthage, that means identifying a local to serve as his straw man (and potential patsy), settling eventually on good old boy Tyler Lee, who bartends at a bikini club, and his good Christian wife Chalene, she of the bake sales and six children. — Tod Goldberg, USA TODAY, "Review: Steven Wright's 'The Coyotes of Carthage' is a crackerjack debut political novel," 14 Apr. 2020 Poor Chuck D, bred on leftist pop sentiment — and being the cleverest student of Malcolm X, Gil-Scott Heron, Frank Zappa, Oscar Brown Jr., and Jean-Luc Godard — has lately been grasping at straw men. — Armond White, National Review, "Public Enemy Meets the Enemy," 8 Apr. 2020 The Utah Senator set up the straw man that the President’s lawyers said an impeachable act must also be a criminal offense. — The Editorial Board, WSJ, "James Madison 1, Nancy Pelosi 0," 5 Feb. 2020 These are simplified straw man (and woman) set-ups. — Zach Freeman, chicagotribune.com, "April Macie at Zanies Chicago: The sex jokes seem a little tired," 15 Sep. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'straw man.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

31 Dec 2020

Cite this Entry

“Straw man.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/straw%20man. Accessed 18 Jan. 2021.

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