Spitball vs. Straw — What's the Difference?

A spitball is an illegal baseball pitch in which the ball has been altered by the application of a foreign substance such as saliva or petroleum jelly. This technique alters the wind resistance and weight on one side of the ball, causing it to move in an atypical manner.

Straw is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat.

A piece of paper chewed and shaped into a lump for use as a projectile.

Dried stalks of grain, used especially as fodder or as material for thatching, packing, or weaving

(Baseball) An illegal pitch in which a foreign substance, such as saliva, is applied to the ball before it is thrown. Also called spitter.

A thin hollow tube of paper or plastic for sucking drink from a glass or bottle.

(baseball) A pitch of a baseball that has been partly covered with saliva, illegal at most levels.

Stalks of threshed grain, used as bedding and food for animals, for thatching, and for weaving or braiding, as into baskets.

A balled-up piece of paper, moistened with saliva (by chewing) and shot through a drinking straw.

A single stalk of threshed grain.

(baseball) To moisten the ball with saliva before pitching it.

Pieces or a piece of natural or artificial strawlike material.

To brainstorm ideas.

Something, such as a hat or basket, made of straw.

Paper chewed, and rolled into a ball, to be thrown as a missile; - a childish prank.

A slender tube used for sucking up a liquid.

A pitched ball in throwing which the pitcher grips the ball between two, or three, fingers on one side (which is made slippery, as by saliva) and the thumb on the other side, and delivers it so that it slips off the fingers with the least possible friction; - also called spitter. When pitched directly overhand a spit ball darts downward, when pitched with the arm extended sidewise it darts down and out. The use of such a pitch is against the rules of professional baseball.

Something of minimal value or importance.

A projectile made by chewing a piece of paper and shaping it into a sphere

The least valuable bit; a jot

An illegal pitch in which a foreign substance (spit or Vaseline) is applied to the ball by the pitcher before he throws it

Something with too little substance to provide support in a crisis

Of, relating to, or made of straw

Containing or used for straw, as a barn or feeding trough.

Of the color of straw; yellowish.

Of, relating to, or constituting a straw man.

Apparently legitimate but actually intended as a cover for illegal or secret activity

(countable) A dried stalk of a cereal plant.

(uncountable) Such dried stalks considered collectively; this bulk matter may be a chief salable product, a by-product, fodder, bedding, or green manure, depending on region and on current market conditions.

(countable) A drinking straw.

(uncommon) A pale, yellowish beige colour, like that of a dried straw.

(figurative) Anything proverbially worthless; the least possible thing.

Made of straw.

Of a pale, yellowish beige colour, like that of a dried straw.

(figurative) Imaginary, but presented as real.

To lay straw around plants to protect them from frost.

To sell straws on the streets in order to cover the giving to the purchaser of things usually banned, such as pornography.

To spread or scatter. See Strew, and Strow.

A stalk or stem of certain species of grain, pulse, etc., especially of wheat, rye, oats, barley, more rarely of buckwheat, beans, and pease.

The gathered and thrashed stalks of certain species of grain, etc.; as, a bundle, or a load, of rye straw.

Anything proverbially worthless; the least possible thing; a mere trifle.

Plant fiber used e.g. for making baskets and hats or as fodder

Material consisting of seed coverings and small pieces of stem or leaves that have been separated from the seeds

A yellow tint; yellow diluted with white

A thin paper or plastic tube used to such liquids into the mouth

Cover or provide with or as if with straw;

Spread by scattering (

Of a pale yellow color like straw; straw colored