Scarecrow

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /ˈskɛə.krəʊ/
• US IPA: /ˈsker.kroÊŠ/

Origin

From scare + crow.

Full definition of scarecrow

Noun

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.
3. (figurative) 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. (UK, dialect) A bird, the black tern.

Verb

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 SamaritanAn 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.