Word.ws English Dictionary

stalking horse

stalking horse noun: a horse used as cover by a hunter stalking game.

Noun

stalking horse (plural stalking horses)

  1. (dated) A horse used as cover by a hunter stalking game.
  2. (idiomatic) 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.1842, Honoré de Balzac, chapter 8, in Ellen Marriage, transl., Albert Savarus
    • Any open challenge would likely come first as trial balloons from backbench "stalking horse" candidates, who could never win.2008 May 23, James Graff, “Lost: Labour's Love for Brown”, in Time, archived from the original on 07 Mar 2016
  3. (broadly, idiomatic) 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?1694, William Congreve, The Double-Dealer, act 2, scene 4
    • "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.1833, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 29, in The Headsman
    Synonyms:
    pretext, ruse
  4. the first bid on a bankrupt company, which sets the low bar for further bidding
    • Eddie Bauer, which has 371 stores in North America, is pursuing a sale to CCMP through what is known as a 363 sale process in bankruptcy court. A judge would need to approve the sale, and other potential bidders could emerge. CCMP, as a so-called stalking horse bidder, is entitled to a $5 million...2009 June 17, Stephanie Rosenbloom, Michael J. de la Merced, “Eddie Bauer Files for Bankruptcy”, in The New York Times, retrieved 06 Apr 2026
    • In court records, Sun Capital has stated that the transfer involved debt, or a subordinated note, and not equity, as alleged by the pension agency. Sun Capital’s stalking horse bid is currently valued at $75 million. All bids are due next week. An auction for Friendly’s assets is scheduled for...2016 July 6, Robert Weisman, “Pfizer makes ‘stalking horse’ bankruptcy bid for Bind Therapeutics”, in The Boston Globe, retrieved 06 Apr 2026

Examples of stalking horse in a sentence

  • Environmentalists have used the owl as a stalking horse to save the last 10% of old-growth forest in the Northwest.1992 May 25, “One for The Loggers”, in Time, archived from the original on 04 Aug 2014:
  • Obama’s candidacy as a stalking horse to justify a government clampdown.2008 August 27, Kirk Johnson, Eric Lichtblau, “Officials See No ‘Credible Threat’ to Obama in Racist Rants”, in New York Times:
  • CCMP, as a so-called stalking horse bidder, is entitled to a $5 million breakup fee if it loses during the court-supervised auction process.2009 June 17, Stephanie Rosenbloom, Michael J. de la Merced, “Eddie Bauer Files for Bankruptcy”, in The New York Times, retrieved 06 Apr...
  • Sun Capital’s stalking horse bid is currently valued at $75 million.2016 July 6, Robert Weisman, “Pfizer makes ‘stalking horse’ bankruptcy bid for Bind Therapeutics”, in The Boston Globe, retrieved 06 Apr...

Synonyms of stalking horse

Forms of stalking horse

pluralstalking horses
alternative formstalking-horse

Questions about stalking horse

What does stalking horse mean?
Stalking horse means a horse used as cover by a hunter stalking game.
How do you use stalking horse in a sentence?
Environmentalists have used the owl as a stalking horse to save the last 10% of old-growth forest in the Northwest.
What part of speech is stalking horse?
Stalking horse is a noun.
What is the plural of stalking horse?
The plural of stalking horse is stalking horses.

Words near stalking horse in the dictionary

  1. stalkier
  2. stalkiest
  3. stalkily
  4. stalkiness
  5. stalking
  6. stalking horse
  7. stalking horses
  8. stalking-horse
  9. stalking-horses
  10. stalkingly
  11. stalkings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stalking horse (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-stalking horse.ogg.

Cite this entry: “stalking horse.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stalking_horse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.