stalker

Noun

stalker (plural stalkers)

1. A person who engages in stalking, i.e., quietly approaching animals to be hunted; a tracker or guide in hunting game.
2. A person who secretly follows someone, sometimes with unlawful intentions.
   • If the stalker thriller “Obsessed,” which opens on Friday, tops the box office, Clinton R. Culpepper will cement his reputation as Hollywood’s king of the schlockbuster.2009 April 22, Michael Cieply, “He’s Behind the Guffaws and the Gore”, in The New York Times
   • Ordinary people have already been face-swapped into videos for humorous or prank purposes and there is no reason to believe that abusers, harassers, stalkers, and blackmailers will not soon be face-swapping victims into compromising video as part of their arsenal.2018 April, Larry Zimmerman, “Cheap and Easily Manipulated Video”, in The Journal of the Kansas Bar Association, Topeka, Kan.: Kansas Bar Association, →ISSN, page 21

   Synonyms:

   prowler

3. Any of various devices for removing the stalk from plants during harvesting.
4. Any bird that walks with a stalking motion.
5. (obsolete) A kind of fishing net.
6. A horse that tends to stay just behind the leaders in a race.
   • If the class of the field is a stalker, I'm all in in terms of evaluating his chances.2024, Jack Adler, Horse Racing: An Opinion: A New Way of Seeing the Sport of Kings