SCARECROW

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does scarecrow mean? 

• SCARECROW (noun)
  The noun SCARECROW has 1 sense:

1. an effigy in the shape of a man to frighten birds away from seeds

  Familiarity information: SCARECROW used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SCARECROW (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An effigy in the shape of a man to frighten birds away from seeds

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

bird-scarer; scarecrow; scarer; straw man; strawman

Hypernyms ("scarecrow" is a kind of...):

effigy; image; simulacrum (a representation of a person (especially in the form of sculpture))

 Context examples 

Such scarecrows as the streets were full of!

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

And when the crows saw him they were frightened, as these birds always are by scarecrows, and did not dare to come any nearer.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

“A scarecrow, I’m afraid,” I replied.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Give Betsey Trotwood's love to Blossom, when you come back; and whatever you do, Trot, never dream of setting Betsey up as a scarecrow, for if I ever saw her in the glass, she's quite grim enough and gaunt enough in her private capacity!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I followed him in, and I remember observing the contrast the neat, bright doctor, with his powder as white as snow and his bright, black eyes and pleasant manners, made with the coltish country folk, and above all, with that filthy, heavy, bleared scarecrow of a pirate of ours, sitting, far gone in rum, with his arms on the table.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

To this crib I always took my doll; human beings must love something, and, in the dearth of worthier objects of affection, I contrived to find a pleasure in loving and cherishing a faded graven image, shabby as a miniature scarecrow.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She thought she must have been mistaken at first, for none of the scarecrows in Kansas ever wink; but presently the figure nodded its head to her in a friendly way.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

I was painfully aware of my likeness to a scarecrow.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I was so repelled by his odious behaviour, particularly by this concluding instance, that I turned away without any ceremony; and left him doubled up in the middle of the garden, like a scarecrow in want of support.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

We went the nearest way, without conversing much upon the road; and he was so humble in respect of those scarecrow gloves, that he was still putting them on, and seemed to have made no advance in that labour, when we got to my place.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)