Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A crude image or effigy of a person set up in a field to scare birds away from growing crops.
- n. Something frightening but not dangerous.
- n. A gaunt or haggard person.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A figure of straw or clouts, made in grotesque semblance of a man, set in a grain-field or a garden to frighten off crows and other birds from the crops; hence, anything set up or intended to frighten or keep off intruders, or to terrify the foolish.
- n. A person so poor and so meanly clad as to resemble a scarecrow.
- n. The black tern, Hydrochelidon fissipes.
Wiktionary
- n. 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.
- n. figuratively, pejorative A tall, thin, awkward person.
- n. figuratively Anything that appears terrifying but offers no danger.
- n. A person clad in rags and tatters.
- n. UK, dialect A bird, the black tern.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Anything set up to frighten crows or other birds from cornfields; hence, anything terifying without danger.
- n. A person clad in rags and tatters.
- n. (Zoöl.), Prov. Eng. The black tern.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an effigy in the shape of a man to frighten birds away from seeds
Etymologies
- scare + crow (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The scarecrow is placed in a field, and there it could have remained.”
“Actually, the more I think about it, this scarecrow is decidedly odd.”
“The strawman scarecrow is always the what OPUS penDEIjo brings to the party.”
“To him, the scarecrow is not just a mere pitchman; he is Carbunkle’s savior.”
“OR what … what if .. oh man … what if the scarecrow was the main villain?”
These Films Won Some Awards « Giant Killer Squid - Film, Comics, News, Reviews and more
“He is a housebot, but he is called a scarecrow because his owner put him out to pasture to keep away the birds.”
“Whether the traditional suit of old clothes stuffed with straw hanging on the traditional or (as is often the case these days) an old store mannequin with a faux gun in its hands, the scarecrow is an oldy-but-still-somewhat-effective-goody.”
“In Gentlemen of the Road (2007), his sword-and-sandals serial recently published in The New York Times Magazine, the vagabond physician Zelikman, variously described as a scarecrow and a ghost, drifts through the Dark Ages with a heart turned to stone after the rape and murder of his mother and sister.”
“April 26th, 2006 at 8:44 pm oh scarecrow, that is sooooo funny!”
“Deanna realized with a start that the young woman who looked more like a scarecrow was her cousin Chaxaza.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘scarecrow’.
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
-
supernatural creatures according to M...
Turned this up on etymonline.com (link). It's amazing.
Hobbit (n.)
1937, coined in the fantasy tales of J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973).
On a blank leaf I scrawled: 'In a hole...niss, nisses, thrummy-cap, fairy, whitewoman, nicknevin, sibyl, fates, sprite, gnome, cuttie, scrat and 186 more...
-
Genes
Interesting gene names. Some of these may have changed recently (to something less offensive/funny).
http://www.genenames.org/
tinman, agnostic, dreadlocks, Van Gogh, fruitless, lava lamp, ariadne, cheap date, ken and barbie, I'm not dead yet, I'm not dead yet 2, manic fringe and 1192 more... -
Killjoy et al
Namely, compounds consisting of a verb with a direct object immediately after it, without inflection
killjoy, lickspigot, quakebuttock, throttlebottom, scattergood, scapegrace, swillbowl, tosspot, breakfast, cutthroat, pickpocket, dreadnought and 84 more...
-
Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
-
The Devil and His Imps
Names of 'the Devil himself, the devils his "flaming ministers", household goblins, rural demons, bogles, sprites, and fairies of all kinds' mentioned in Charles P.G. Scott's 'The Devil and His Imp...
devil, devilet, deviling, dablet, black angel, black man, black bear, black bull, black dog, bogle, bogie, boggard and 128 more...
-
Junk
walrus, fascination, broadway, fickle, downturn, bridge, gargle, rotunda, mesh, fab, shortlife, strumming and 304 more...
-
Words Covered in Faery Dust (S)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
sabian symbols, saffron, sagacious, sage, salamander, sally lunn, salmon, salsify, salt water taffy, samhain, sand dollar, sandalwood and 270 more...
-
Agentive Exocentric [V+N]N Compounds
Agentive and Instrumental Exocentric Verb-Noun Compounds that are still found in Modern English to some degree.
breakwater, sellsword, breakfast, scarecrow, cutthroat, pickpocket, turncoat, killjoy
-
Special Beasts
I'm looking for compounds or phrases where the character of an animal is essential to the meaning, yet the term is usable in general conversation.
scapegoat, bull market, sacred cow, bear market, hangdog, cat o' nine tails, clothes horse, mousey, donkey drop, black sheep, horseplay, ducks and drakes and 94 more...
-
Noah's Park
Hello, and Welcome™! Come and visit our most diverse land of our Animalesque™ adventures. Here at Noah's Park™ we have Virtually All You'd Ever Want To See™. An experience that is related to ani...
sheep's eyes, doe-eyed, cat-eyed, bug-eyed, cat's paw, black swan, leapfrog, menagerie, cold turkey, card shark, snail's pace, bull's eye and 362 more...
-
Words to have topped the "most wordie...
confelicity, bristol stool scale, blatteroon, toejam, serendipity, oubliette, crepuscular, honeysuckle, mellifluous, sesquipedalian, flaberkin, magnanimous and 141 more...
-
gorgonglare's list
the best
zeppelin, ion, laconic, serendipity, cataract, saturnine, syzygy, cinnabar, bistro, lithium, paroxysm, scion and 694 more...
-
Cool Words
Words that are awesome to use, if you can find a good place in a sentence to use them!
asunder, zero, scarecrow, chronic, crooked, aftermath, aquatic, karma, deadpan, devil, berserker, bibliotaph and 32 more...
-
Michael Critz List
I like words. Mostly so I can use them as weapons.
morgue, devil, agnostic, gaze, cru, tonneaus, idly, ankh, ankle, halon, epode, fumy and 54 more...
-
Chillin' With the Villains
A veritable parade of baddies and other ne'er-do-wells.
lex luthor, green goblin, joker, penguin, catwoman, venom, scarecrow, khan, blue laser, wicked witch of t..., roger klotz, snidely whiplash and 74 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for scarecrow.
Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.