Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Stalking-horse |
Stalking-horseNoun1. A candidate put forward to divide the opposition or to mask the true candidate. 2. Something serving to conceal plans; a fictitious reason that is concocted in order to conceal the real reason. 3. Screen consisting of a figure of a horse behind which a hunter hides while stalking game. 4. A horse behind which a hunter hides while stalking game. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "stalking-horse" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1600. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Stalking-horse A mask to conceal some design; a person put forward to mislead; a sham. Fowlers used to conceal themselves behind horses, and went on stalking step by step till they got within shot of the game. N. B. To stalk is to walk with strides, from the Anglo-Saxon stælcan. "He uses his folly like a stalking-horse, and under the presentation of that he shoots his wit."- Shakespeare: As You Like It, v 4. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonym: Stalking-horseSynonym: pretext (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Dissuasion | Handle, peg to hang on, room locus standi; stalking-horse, cheval de bataille, cue. |
Precursor | Noun: precursor, antecedent, precedent, predecessor; forerunner, vancourier, avant-coureur, pioneer, prodrome, prodromos, prodromus, outrider; leader, bellwether; herald, harbinger; foreboding; dawn; avant-courier, avant-garde, bellmare, forelooper, foreloper, stalking-horse, voorlooper, voortrekker. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Author | Quotation |
William Shakespeare | He uses his folly like a stalking-horse, and under the presentation of that he shoots his wit. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| "Stalking-horse" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 66.67% of the time. "Stalking-horse" is used about 3 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 66.67% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Noun (singular) | 33.33% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 3 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Language | Translations for "stalking-horse"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 偷偷 近马. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||
Korean | 활보하 마필. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | alking-horsestay vestuário (apparel, attire, attirement, clothes, clothing, come-off, costume, ensemble, fig, garment, get-up, investiture, put-off, raiment, tog, toggery, vestment, vesture), maneira de vestir (guise), forma (build, cutout, energy, fashion, fig, form, former, guest-card, guise, hardiness, highness, intensity, kilter, main, make, manner, means, mode, mold, mould, posse, scheme, shape, species, stretcher, way), aspecto (air, aspect, blush, cast, complexion, feature, fettle, garb, guise, light, look, make, mien, outlook, presence, riskiness, sight, view, visage), aparência (air, appearance, aspect, complexion, expression, exterior, external, garb, likeness, look, make, perspective, semblance, shell, shew, show, sight, surface, veneer, view). (various references) ширма (blind, folding screen, screen, shield), отговорка (cloak, come-off, excuse, pretence, pretense), предлог (cloak, cover up, excuse, preposition). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||
Misspellings | |
"Stalking-horse" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Stalkinghorse. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words rhyming with "stalking-horse" (pronounced 'Stalk"ing-horse'): Rocking-horse. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-g-h-i-k-l-n-o-r-s-s-t" | |
-3 letters: earthlings, hailstones, holstering, horsetails, ringhalses, senhoritas, shearlings, shoestring, shrinkages, slathering, streakings. | |
-4 letters: aeroliths, agonistes, ashlering, asserting, assertion, assorting, astringes, athelings, earthling, estragons, ganisters, garnishes, gasoliers, gasolines, gelations, geraniols, ghastlier, ghostlier, ghostlike, girasoles, gnarliest, goatskins, grasslike, hailstone, halitoses, haltering, histogens, hoariness, holsteins, horntails, horsetail, hosteling, ingathers, insolates, instrokes, integrals, kashering, keratosis, knotgrass, koshering. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Quotations: Familiar 4. Usage Frequency | 5. Translations: Modern 6. Derivations 7. Rhymes 8. Anagrams | 9. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
