Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Scarecrow

Scarecrow , noun

1.
Anything set up to frighten crows or other birds from cornfields; hence, anything terrifying 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. — Shakespeare
3.
(Zoology) The black tern. [Provincial English]