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Straw Man
(redirected from Grasping at straws)

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Financial, Idioms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia 0.01 sec.

An individual who acts as a front for others who actually incur the expense and obtain the profit of a transaction.

In the terminology employed by real estate dealers, a straw man is an individual who acts as a conduit for convenience in holding and transferring title to the property involved. For example, such a person might act as an agent for another in order to take title to real property and execute whatever documents and instruments the principal directs with respect to the transaction.


straw man n. 1) a person to whom title to property or a business interest is transferred for the sole purpose of concealing the true owner and/or the business machinations of the parties. Thus, the straw man has no real interest or participation but is merely a passive stand-in for a real participant who secretly controls activities. Sometimes a straw man is involved when the actual owner is not permitted to act, such as a person with a criminal record holding a liquor license. 2) an argument which is intended to distract the other side from the real issues or waste the opponent's time and effort, sometimes called a "red herring" (for the belief that drawing a fish across a trail will mislead hunting dogs).



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I knew I was in trouble last summer, and then I started grasping at straws," said Mr.
” “When you have to spiral down to political threats it really illustrates that NOM is grasping at straws because they know they aren't winning on the arguments,” Alan Van Capelle, executive director of Empire State Pride Agenda, told Politico's Ben Smith .
Roy Spence: While everyone in corporate America is cutting costs and trying to stimulate new revenues, organizations that have a clear purpose won't be looking for silver bullets or grasping at straws or just cutting cost with no clear focus.
 
 
 
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