man of straw

“I am but a man of straw, Arthur,” he said.

At the hearing today, Mr Justice Moor criticised the couple and said Mr Young was "hiding the truth" and was not "a penniless man of straw with huge debts".

"A man of straw is worth a woman of gold."

I am so unwilling you should think me here fighting a mere man of straw who has been arranged with a view to the convenience of knocking him down, and I find such mournful evidences of the complete misconception of form, of literary science in our literature, that, with a reluctance which every one will understand, I am going to draw upon a personal experience, to show the extent of that misconception.

He has apartments in the Castle--is hand and glove with Secretary Cooke; through him we may be able to tamper with the soldiery, turning the arms of Government against itself, for the town-major is no man of straw.'