scarecrow
English
Etymology
From scare + crow from 1530s. Replaced original shewel from Middle English sheweles, from an unattested Old English form composed of scȳn + -els (scīewels). Compare Middle Low German schūwelse and Middle High German schiusel. More at shy.
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "RP" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈskɛə.kɹəʊ/
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "GA" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈskɛəɹ.kɹoʊ/
Noun
scarecrow (plural scarecrows)
- 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.
- (figuratively, derogatory) 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.
- (figurative) Anything that appears terrifying but offers no danger.
- John Dryden
- a scarecrow set to frighten fools away
- John Dryden
- A person clad in rags and tatters.
- William Shakespeare
- No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I'll not march with them through Coventry, that's flat.
- William Shakespeare
- (UK, dialect) A bird, the black tern.
Synonyms
- (effigy made of straw): See Thesaurus:scarecrow
Coordinate terms
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
an effigy made to scare the birds away
|
tall, thin, awkward person
|
Verb
scarecrow (third-person singular simple present scarecrows, present participle scarecrowing, simple past and past participle scarecrowed)
- (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.
Categories:
- English compound terms
- Old English compound terms
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English derogatory terms
- English terms with quotations
- British English
- English dialectal terms
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English exocentric verb-noun compounds
- en:Corvids
- en:People
- en:Terns