In literature, the term "straw" as a color is often employed to evoke a natural, warm, and understated hue that blurs the lines between the organic and the industrial. For instance, an author describes a character’s moustache as "straw‑coloured" [1], suggesting an earthy, unpretentious quality, while another passage details metal tempered to a "dark straw color" that gradually merges into blue [2], hinting at an interplay between natural tones and industrial precision. The color is further classified alongside other natural shades, as in the enumeration of colors—rose, straw, and colourless—implying its role as a subtle yet distinct hue in a broader palette [3]. Complementing these, the spectrum of straw is widened in another narrative where shades range from deep orange to light straw, highlighting its versatility [4]. Finally, the evocative description of hair "the colour of wet straw" [5] conjures images of softness and fragility, emphasizing the delicate interplay between light and texture.
- He gazed hard at me, and stroked his straw-coloured moustache.
— from Miss Cayley's Adventures by Grant Allen
- Drills for boring iron are tempered a dark straw color at the cutting edge merging back into blue.
— from Farm Mechanics: Machinery and Its Use to Save Hand Labor on the Farm. by Herbert A. Shearer
- The Catawbas are pleasant, and are of three colours,—rose colour, straw colour, and colourless, if that be a colour.
— from The Art of Entertaining by M. E. W. (Mary Elizabeth Wilson) Sherwood
- The shades vary from a deep orange to a light straw color, but that called Imperial is said to be the citron yellow.
— from The Ceramic Art
A Compendium of The History and Manufacture of Pottery and Porcelain by Jennie J. Young
- 55 She was pretty, after the anæmic French type of beauty, with pink cheeks, pale blue eyes and hair the colour of wet straw.
— from Europe After 8:15 by H. L. (Henry Louis) Mencken