Meaning of Scarecrow | Babel Free

Definitions

1. An effigy, typically made of straw and dressed in old clothes, fixed to a pole in a field to deter birds from eating crops or seeds planted there.
2. A person or animal regarded as resembling a scarecrow (sense 1) in some way; especially, a tall, thin, awkward person; or a person wearing ragged and tattered clothes.
   broadly, derogatory
3. Synonym of crow scarer (“a farmhand employed to scare birds from the fields”).
   dated
4. Anything that appears terrifying but presents no danger; a paper tiger.
   figuratively
5. Military equipment or tactics used to scare and deter rather than cause actual damage.
   figuratively, historical
6. The black tern (Chlidonias niger).
   British, dialectal, obsolete
7. The hooded crow (Corvus cornix).
   British, dialectal, obsolete

Equivalents

Examples

“VVots thou vvho's returnd, / The unthrift Bonvile, ragged as a ſcarre-crovv, / The VVarres have gnavv'd his garments to the skinne: […]”

“[W]e ſet him [the Devil] up like a Scare-Crovv to fright Children and old VVomen, to fill up old Stories, make Songs and Ballads, and in a VVord, carry on the lovv priz'd Buffoonry of the common People; […]”

“The things which he had to put on were so old and ragged that they would scarce hold together; and they were so dirty that no ragamuffin of the street would have picked them out of the gutter; no scarecrow in the fields ever had such clothes.”

“Priapus was frequently represented sculpturally, as a kind of scarecrow among the fields and even as a protection over graveyards.”

“The ſeely man ſeeing him ryde ſo ranck, / And ayme at him, fell flatt to ground for feare, / And crying Mercy loud, his pitious handes gan reare. // Thereat the Scarcrovv vvexed vvondrous provvd, / Through fortune of his firſt aduenture fayre, / And vvith big thundring voice reuyld him lovvd; […]”

“No eye hath ſeene ſuch skarcrovves. Ile not march vvith them through Couentry vvith them, thats flat: […]”

“So, a true Souldier, / He is his Countreys ſtrength, his Soueraignes ſafety, / And to ſecure his peace, he makes himſelfe / The heyre of danger, nay the ſubiect of it, / And runnes thoſe vertuous hazards, that this Scarre-crovv / Cannot endure to heare of.”

“In opposition to this society, there sprung up another composed of scarecrows and skeletons, who, being very meagre and envious, did all they could to thwart the designs of their bulky brethren, whom they represented as men of dangerous principles; […]”

“A Conſultation vvas novv entered into, hovv to proceed in order to diſcover the Mother. A Scrutiny vvas firſt made into the Characters of the female Servants of the Houſe, vvho vvere all acquitted by Mrs. VVilkins, and vvith apparent Merit; for ſhe had collected them herſelf, and perhaps it vvould be difficult to find ſuch another Set of Scarecrovvs.”

“Obedient to this summons there ranged themselves in front of the schoolmaster's desk, half-a-dozen scarecrows, out at knees and elbows, one of whom placed a torn and filthy book beneath his learned eye.”

“'Why, my friend,' he said, stopping to contemplate the scarecrow, 'where hast thou gotten these rags and this wound?' 'I have escaped, sir, from a French prison, and have received a hurt on the forehead.'”

“Many of the palki gāris used as hack cabs in Calcutta and other large towns, owned by speculators who know nothing of their business, including liquor-sellers, table-servants, and even priestesses of Venus retired from business, are drawn by scarecrows that recall in a reduced and shadowy form the outlines of Bewick's grim woodcut,—"Waiting for death." But the mercy of death is denied to them.”

“VVith ſcoffes and ſcornes, and contumelious taunts, In open Market-place produc't they me, To be a publique ſpectacle to all: Here, ſayd they, is the Terror of the French, The Scar-Crovv that affrights our Children ſo.”

“The greateſt burden in the vvorld is ſuperſtition; not onely of Ceremonies in the Church, but of imaginary and ſcarcrovv ſins at home.”

“A ſcarecrow, ſet to frighten fools away; / Marriage has joys; and you ſhall have aſſay.”

“The Canada West Foundation dismisses these concerns as "political scarecrows"; fearsome at first glance but irrelevant on closer examination. Unfortunately the problems of an elected Senate cannot be dismissed so easily.”

CEFR level