stalking horse

Definitions

1. 1

   A horse used as cover by a hunter stalking game.

2. 2

   A candidate put forward to serve a hidden, ulterior purpose in a political campaign, such…

   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.

   • 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.
3. 3

   A person, thing, or expedient used in a deceptive manner, to achieve some hidden purpose.

   • 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.
4. ›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer

   1. 4

      the first bid on a bankrupt company, which sets the low bar for further bidding

The neighborhood