Definition of "scarer"

The letter from a Raja is spotted with gold-leaf as a preservative, partly to divert the glance of fascination and partly because gold is a scarer of demons...

1894, William Crooke, An Introduction to the Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India

However, if a child tells a parent that someone “scares me,” it certainly doesn’t seem prudent to tell the alleged scarer what the child has confided to the parent, even if that parent “trusts” the baby sitter at this point.

2007 January 21, “Letters”, in New York Times‎