Definition of "straw man"

straw man

noun
plural straw men
1. A doll or scarecrow, particularly one stuffed with straw.
2. (figurative) An innocuous person or someone of nominal or lesser importance, as a front man or straw boss.
3. (figurative) An insubstantial concept, idea, endeavor or argument, particularly one deliberately set up to be weakly supported, e.g. by misrepresenting an opponent's argument by broadening or narrowing the scope of a premise, so that it can be easily knocked down; especially to impugn the strength of any related or contrasted thing or idea.
4. (figurative, engineering, business) An outline serving as an initial proposal for a project, usually refined iteratively.
5. Synonym of straw buyer
  Quotations
  If a broker or a salesperson attempts to use a straw man to purchase property for which he or she has a listing, the real estate person must specifically disclose in writing to the seller this relationship with the buyer.
  2000, John W. Reilly, The Language of Real Estate, page 381
verb
third-person singular simple present straw mans, present participle straw manning, simple past and past participle straw manned
1. To falsely attribute an insubstantial argument (a straw man argument) to another through direct declaration or indirect implication; to put words in someone's mouth.
  Quotations
  I have also argued that he is guilty of straw manning Copi and that his charge of shoddy reasoning against Kahane makes use of an equivocation on the concept of fallacy.
  1996 [Vale Press], Ralph H. Johnson, The Rise of Informal Logic, Windsor Studies in Argumentation, 2014, E-edition, page 178
  11 It should, however, also be noted that in certain cases later "neo-corporatist authors" straw manned the pluralist model, making it easier to criticise (Nedelmann and Meier, 1979: 94).
  2016, Stijn Smismans, “5: Regulatory Procedure and Participation in the European Union”, in Francesca Bignami, David Zaring, editors, Comparative Law and Regulation, Edward Elgar Publishing, page 133
  My point does not concern the principle of charity or whether Hickman has straw manned postmodernism.
  2021, John T. Lysaker, Philosophy, Writing, and the Character of Thought, University of Chicago Press, page 39