Dictionary entry

Scarecrow

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Scare″crow′ (?), n. 1. Anything set up to frighten crows or other birds from cornfields; hence, anything terifying without danger.

A scarecrow set to frighten fools away. Dryden.

2. A person clad in rags and tatters.

No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I'll not march with them through Coventry, that's flat. Shak.

3. (Zoöl.) The black tern.