From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdraw the short strawdraw the short strawUNLUCKYused to say that someone has been unlucky because they were chosen to do something that no one else wanted to do He drew the short straw and had to drive everyone to the party. → draw
Examples from the Corpus
draw the short straw• I'm only here because I drew the short straw.• Rose had drawn the short straw, and was thus forced to seek Lord Westbourne clasping the Romanov dagger. 