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Formidable vs Scarecrow - What's the difference?

formidable | scarecrow |

As an adjective formidable

is causing fear, dread, awe or admiration as a result of size, strength, or some other impressive quality; commanding respect; causing wonder or astonishment.

As a noun scarecrow is

an effigy, typically made of straw and dressed in old clothes, fixed to a pole in a field to deter birds from eating seeds or crops planted there.

As a verb scarecrow is

to splay rigidly outward, like the arms of a scarecrow.

formidable

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • causing fear, dread, awe or admiration as a result of size, strength, or some other impressive quality; commanding respect; causing wonder or astonishment
  • difficult to defeat or overcome
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=May 9 , author=John Percy , title=Birmingham City 2 Blackpool 2 (2-3 on agg): match report , work=the Telegraph citation , page= , passage=Holloway has unfinished business in the Premier League after relegation last year and he will make a swift return if he can overcome West Ham a week on Saturday. Sam Allardyce, the West Ham manager, will be acutely aware that when the stakes are high, Blackpool are simply formidable .}}

    scarecrow

    English

    (wikipedia scarecrow)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An effigy, typically made of straw and dressed in old clothes, fixed to a pole in a field to deter birds from eating seeds or crops planted there.
  • (figuratively, pejorative) A tall, thin, awkward person.
  • (figurative) Anything that appears terrifying but offers no danger.
    • A scarecrow set to frighten fools away. — Dryden.
  • 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.
  • (UK, dialect) A bird, the black tern.

    • See also

    * bird-scarer * scarer

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To splay rigidly outward, like the arms of a scarecrow.
  • * 2006 , Ron S. King, Nowhere Street (page 109)
    • his small frame seeming scarecrowed in the over-large black coat.
  • * 2010 , Robert N. Chan, The Bad Samaritan
    • An arctic wind whooshes down Columbus Avenue like the IRT express, catching her bags, scarecrowing her arms, and threatening to take her broad-brimmed hat downtown.