Short Straw
Noun · Slang & Abbreviations
Definitions
The unlucky assignment of an undesirable task or duty. In engineering slang, drawing the short straw often means getting the fragile service, the unpleasant migration, or the holiday on-call shift.
In plain English: The unlucky assignment of the least desirable task.
Example: "She drew the short straw on the legacy export cleanup, which meant spending two weeks in code no one else had touched since the acquisition."