scare-the-birds

scare-the-birds

1. A scarecrow.
   • 1934, Stella Gibbons, Bassett:

     Miss Padsoe looked very fragile and old, more like a scare-the-birds than a woman as she carefully wrapped a mothy old bit of fur round her thin neck, and Miss Baker wondered if she ought to come out in this bitter cold, and said as much.

   • 1978, Jane Gardam, God on the Rocks, Abacus, published 2014, page 22:

     A black wooden toy windmill on a stick meant for a scare-the-birds was warped and immovable.