Meaning of stalking horse | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A horse used as cover by a hunter stalking game.
   dated
2. A candidate put forward to serve a hidden, ulterior purpose in a political campaign, such as testing the field for another potential candidate by gauging voter sentiment or covertly helping another candidate by attracting voters away from a third candidate.
   idiomatic
3. A person, thing, or expedient used in a deceptive manner, to achieve some hidden purpose.
   broadly, idiomatic

Equivalents

Examples

“The Ministry had their candidate, a stalking-horse, useful only to receive⟳ the purely Ministerial votes. The votes, thus divided, gave no result⟳.”

“Any open⟳ challenge⟳ would likely come⟳ first as trial balloons from backbench "stalking horse" candidates, who could never win⟳.”

“But the other narrative goes after Biden as though the Democrats had actually nominated Bernie Sanders, insisting that his advancing age makes him a decrepit vessel for the radical left, a stalking horse not just for Kamala Harris but also for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and antifa.”

“Do you think⟳ my daughter […] fit for nothing but to be a stalking horse, to stand⟳ before you, while you take⟳ aim at my wife?”

“"Let⟳ the great of the earth give⟳ but half the care to prevent⟳, that they show⟳ to punish⟳, offences against themselves, and what is now called justice will no longer be a stalking-horse to enable a few to live⟳ at the cost⟳ of the rest⟳.”

“Environmentalists have⟳ used the owl as a stalking horse to save⟳ the last⟳ 10% of old-growth forest in the Northwest.”

“The post⟳, culling online chatter from supremacist sites, said hate⟳ groups were increasingly worried that law enforcement authorities would use⟳ Mr. Obama’s candidacy as a stalking horse to justify⟳ a government clampdown.”

CEFR level