stalking-horse

1. 1.

   a candidate put forward to divide the Opposition or to mask the true candidate

   Broadercampaigner
2. 2.

   something serving to conceal plans; a fictitious reason that is concocted in order to conceal the real reason

   Synonymspretext

   Broaderpretense

   Narrowerputoff
3. 3.

   screen consisting of a figure of a horse behind which a hunter hides while stalking game

   Broaderscreen
4. 4.

   a horse behind which a hunter hides while stalking game

   Broaderhorse

Questions about stalking-horse

What does stalking-horse mean?

stalking-horse means "a candidate put forward to divide the Opposition or to mask the true candidate". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in stalking-horse?

stalking-horse has 3 syllables: stal-king--horse. The stress falls on "stal".

What is another word for stalking-horse?

Close synonyms include pretext. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is stalking-horse a common word?

stalking-horse is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.