strawman

noun

The third party who makes a straw purchase for another person.

1. A doll or scarecrow, particularly one stuffed with straw.
2. An innocuous person or someone of nominal or lesser importance, as a front man or straw boss.
3. An insubstantial concept, idea, endeavor or argument, particularly one deliberately set up to be weakly supported, so that it can be easily knocked down; especially to impugn the strength of any related or contrasted thing or idea.
4. An outline serving as an initial proposal for a project, usually refined iteratively.

   a tentative straw-man spec

verb

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.