English

Scarecrows in a rice paddy in Japan.

Noun

scarecrow ‎(plural scarecrows)

1. An effigy, typically made of straw and dressed in old clothes, fixed to a pole in a field to deter birds from eating seeds or crops planted there.
2. (figuratively, pejorative) A tall, thin, awkward person.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

     A consultation was now entered into how to proceed in order to discover the mother. A scrutiny was first made into the characters of the female servants of the house, who were all acquitted by Mrs Wilkins, and with apparent merit; for she had collected them herself, and perhaps it would be difficult to find such another set of scarecrows.

3. (figuratively) Anything that appears terrifying but offers no danger.

   A scarecrow set to frighten fools away. — Dryden.

4. A person clad in rags and tatters.

   No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I'll not march with them through Coventry, that's flat. — Shakespeare.

5. (Britain, dialect) A bird, the black tern.

Coordinate terms

• straw man

Translations

See also

• bird-scarer
• scarer

Verb

scarecrow ‎(third-person singular simple present scarecrows, present participle scarecrowing, simple past and past participle scarecrowed)

1. (transitive) To splay rigidly outward, like the arms of a scarecrow.
   • 2006, Ron S. King, Nowhere Street (page 109)

     […] his small frame seeming scarecrowed in the over-large black coat.

   • 2010, Robert N. Chan, The Bad Samaritan

     An arctic wind whooshes down Columbus Avenue like the IRT express, catching her bags, scarecrowing her arms, and threatening to take her broad-brimmed hat downtown.