| 释义 |
ˈstalking-horse
[stalking vbl. n.]
1. A horse trained to allow a fowler to conceal himself behind it or under its coverings in order to get within easy range of the game without alarming it. Hence, a portable screen of canvas or other light material, made in the figure of a horse (or sometimes of other animals), similarly used for concealment in pursuing game.
1519in Archæologia XXV. 420 Item pd for Shoyng of Thomas Lawes Stawkyng horse..iij d. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 133 This is a beast standing amazed at euery strange sight, euen at the hunters bow and Arrowe, comming behind a stalking Horsse. 1611Cotgr., Tonnelle, a Tunnell, or staulking horse for Partridges. 1621Markham Fowling viii. 47, 49–50 The Stalking-Horse..is any old Iade trayned vp for that vse, which..will gently..walke vp and downe in the water..; and then..you shall shelter your selfe and your Peice behind his fore shoulder. Now forasmuch as these Stalking horses..are not euer in readinesse... In this case he may take any pieces of oulde Canuasse, and hauing made it in the shape or proportion of a Horse.., let it be painted as neere the colour of a Horse as you can deuise. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. ii. ii. iv. (1624) 226 Fowling.., be it with guns, lime, nets, glades..stawking horses, setting-dogges, &c. a1698W. Blundell Cavalier's Note Bk. (1880) 106 The use of stalking-horses is great... Horses are easily taught. Some do use to have a painted horse carried upon a frame. 1706Art Painting (1744) 134 Giovanni d'Udine..is thought to have been the inventor of the stalking-horse, which poachers now use. 1780Pitt Let. in Stanhope Life (1863) I. i. 36 Your moor must be in the perfection of winter beauty; but I suppose with hardly any cattle upon it, except stalking horses. 1875‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Rural Sports i. i. i. §5 He is enabled to drop his net over the place without the trouble of using the stalking-horse. 1902Cornish Naturalist Thames 7 The flats of the Upper Thames, where..the wild duck are stalked with the stalking-horse, as of old.
2. fig.
a. A person whose agency or participation in a proceeding is made use of to prevent its real design from being suspected.
1612Webster White Devil iii. i. 41 You..were made his engine, and his stauking horse, To undo my sister. 1693Congreve Double Dealer ii. iv, Do you think her fit for nothing but to be a Stalking-Horse to stand before you, while you take aim at my Wife? a1763Shenstone Progr. Taste i. 78 Let me provide Some human form to grace my side: At hand,..An useful, pliant, stalking-horse! 1963Times 12 Jan. 6/2 This meant that the Europeans would regard us as the stalking horse or paid hand of Uncle Sam and would not wish us to participate fully in European affairs. 1977J. M. Harrison in Bond & McLeod Newslett. to Newspapers iii. 208 Zenger was actually a stalking horse for the group of wealthy politicians who owned the New York Journal. 1980Jewish Chron. 15 Feb. 1/1 It raises the fear that the Irish may be acting as a stalking horse for the whole European Economic Community.
b. An underhand means or expedient for making an attack or attaining some sinister object; usually, a pretext put forward for this purpose.
1579W. Wilkinson Confut. Fam. Love 70 b, Abusing the pretence of the Gospell as a stalking horse to leuell at others by. 1594Order for Prayer To Rdr. A 4, Certaine who..serue themselues of that idolatrous Romish religion, as of a Maske and stalking horse, therewith to couer the vnsatiable ambition..of vsurping the kingdoms of other Princes. 1600Shakes. A.Y.L. v. iv. 111 He uses his folly like a stalking-horse. 1624Gee New Shreds of Old Snare 14 They made Religion a stalking horse to intend their own profit. 1792Ld. Auckland in Corr. (1861) II. 423 The cause of Poland..is..thought a good mot de guerre; and under that stalking-horse, the dissenters and levellers are preparing to attack us. 1827Scott Napoleon Introd., Wks. 1870 VIII. 207 His..popularity had..been the stalking-horse, through means of which, men..had taken aim at their own objects. 1835Sir W. Hamilton Discuss. (1852) 520 Their conscience is merely a stalking-horse, moved by their interest, and to conceal it. 1865Dickens Lett. (1880) II. 240 The cattle plague is the butcher's stalking-horse. 1880L. Stephen Pope ii. 55 His [Pope's] indefensible use of Addison's fame as a stalking-horse in the attack upon Dennis. |