| 释义 |
▪ I. scarecrow, n.|ˈskɛəkrəʊ|
Forms: 6 scarre-crowe, skar-crowe, 6–7 scarrecrow, scarcrow(e, 7 skar-crow, 7– scarecrow (formerly often written with hyphen).
[f. scare v. + crow n.1]
1. A person employed in scaring birds.
1553T. Wilson Rhet. 47 b, Plaie as young boyes or scarre crowes do, whiche showte in the open and plaine feldes at all aventures hittie missie. 1908E. C. Palmer in Daily Mail 11 Apr. 6/5 He is not ashamed of being a scarecrow.
2. a. A device for frightening birds from growing crops, usually a figure of a man dressed in old and ragged clothes.
1592Nobody & Somebody H 4, Let me be hangd vp sunning in the ayre, And made a scar-crow. 1637Heywood Royall King iii. ii, Wots thou who's returnd, The unthrift Bonvile, ragged as a scarre-crow. 1726De Foe Hist. Devil ii. iii. (1840) 202 We set the devil up like a scarecrow to frighten children and old women. 1762Lloyd Nightingale Poems 96 Critics, who like the scarecrows stand Upon the poet's common land. 1874Geo. Eliot Coll. Breakf. P. 427 Can you..Frighten the blind with scarecrows? 1887Besant The World went xx, No scarecrow in the fields ever had such clothes.
b. fig. Something (not really formidable) that frightens or is intended to frighten: a ‘bogy’.
1589Marprel. Theses Martin. D ij, All the bishops of England are too weake to deale with a scarre-crowe, that hath but the name of reuerend Martin written vppon it. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, i. iv, Here, sayd they, is the Terror of the French, The Scar-Crow that affrights our Children so. 1642Hales Schism 1 Heresie and Schisme as they are commonly used, are two Theological scar-crows. 1686T. Brown To Ld. Chancellor Wks. 1709 III. iii. 99 So grisly Comets from the Dung-hills rise, Those upstart Scare-crows of the wond'ring Skies. 1746Wesley Princ. Methodist 23, I should wonder if the Scarecrow of sinless Perfection was not brought in some way or other. 1812Examiner 12 Oct. 653/2 That idle scarecrow,—the Bribery Act. 1870Thornbury Tour round Eng. I. iv. 89 What a scarecrow to a blushing curate that stiff old lady..must have been.
c. Mil. slang. Used in the war of 1939–45, to designate weapons or manœuvres which had a purely deterrent effect (see quots.).
1943T. Dudley-Gordon Coastal Command at War iv. 41 This was the squadron..which flew the Scarecrow Control... No one knows how many times a U-Boat captain was forced to keep submerged because a Tiger Moth, which might be dangerous, was doing a scarecrow on him. 1952M. Tripp Faith is Windsock ii. 41 Two daylight attacks on Solingen... Gigantic blobs of oily smoke hung in the sky... It was their first experience of the German terror weapon, the scarecrow. 1966L. Miall Richard Dimbleby, Broadcaster 39 A great gush of flame and smoke showed the bursting of a ‘scarecrow’, the oddity designed by the Germans to simulate a heavy bomber being shot down, and so to put any of our less experienced pilots off their stroke.
3. A person whose appearance causes ridicule; a lean, gaunt figure; one who resembles a scarecrow in his dress, ‘a guy.’
1590Spenser F.Q. ii. iii. 7 Thereat the Scarcrow wexed wondrous prowd. 1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iv. ii. 41. 1625 B. Jonson Staple of N. iv. iv, A true Souldier..runnes those vertuous hazards, that this Scarre-crow Cannot endure to heare of. 1672Marvel Reh. Transp. i. 50 You never saw such a Scarcrow as he makes him. 1711Addison Spect. No. 9 ⁋2 In Opposition to this Society [of Fat-men], there sprung up another composed of Scare-Crows and Skeletons. 1749Berkeley Word to the Wise Wks. III. 441 People well fed, and well clad, instead of famished, ragged scarecrows. 1838Dickens Nich. Nick. viii, In front of the schoolmaster's desk, half a dozen scarecrows out at knees and elbows. 1874L. Stephen Hours in Library (1892) I. v. 192 A grim and ugly scarecrow, on whom every buffoon may break his jest. 1881W. S. Gilbert Foggerty's Fairy 11, I was sorry to see a fine young man throw himself away upon such a scarecrow. 1932E. Muspratt Wild Oats v. 96 He was a great gaunt scarecrow, bent and crippled by disease. 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. ix. 169 Thin people inspire almost as many names and jokes as fat people, but..the names..are merely descriptive, as:..scarecrow, scraggy, skin and bones.
†4. An alleged name of the Black Tern, Hydrochelidon nigra, and of the Hooded Crow, Corvus cornix. Obs.
a1672Willughby & Ray Ornith. (1676) 269 Larus niger Gesneri... The Scar-crow. 1802–33Montagu's Ornith. Dict. 258 Hoody, Dun Crow, Scare Crow.
5. attrib. (quasi-adj.)
16022nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. i. vi. 498 Hang him,..That when the cloud of his inuention breakes, Cannot out-cracke the scarr-crow thunderbolt. 1644Milton Divorce Introd. 4 The greatest burden in the world is superstition; not only of Ceremonies in the Church, but of imaginary and scar-crow sins at home. 1663Cowley Verses & Ess., To Royal Soc. iii, The Orchard's open now, and free; Bacon has broke the Scar-crow Deitie. 1761Wesley Jrnl. 19 Feb. (1827) III. 40 Many may forget my scarecrow name. 1837Lockhart Scott VI. 68 He was a scarecrow figure—attired much in the fashion of the strugglers. 1894J. C. Jeaffreson Bk. Recoll. II. xxv. 223 Wearing a scarecrow hat..in his rural walks.
Hence ˈscarecrowish, ˈscarecrowy adjs.
1862Thornbury Turner I. 277 All through the ‘Liber the figures are admirable, except the larger ones in the home pastoral scenes, and they are rather weak, sketchy and scarecrowy. 1892M. North Recoll. Happy Life I. 94, I found his worship in an extra scarcecrowish costume.
▪ II. scarecrow, v.|ˈskɛəkrəʊ|
Also 6 scarrecrow.
[f. scarecrow n.]
†1. trans. To frighten, as with a scarecrow. Obs.
1593G. Harvey Pierce's Super. 69 That old acquaintance,..is neither lullabied with thy sweete Papp, nor scarre⁓crowed with thy sower hatchet. 1675T. Duffet Mock Tempest I. 42 Yea, I will scare-crow thee, I will top and scourge thee.
2. To dot and disfigure as scarecrows do.
1853Fraser's Mag. XLVIII. 471 Yet wilder specimens of the human race..here and there scare-crow the broad, sadly picturesque expanse. |