stalking-horsen.
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.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > hunting > equipment > [noun] > stalking-horse
stalking-horse1519
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > family Equidae (general equines) > horse defined by purpose used for > [noun] > used in hunting > in particular aspects of
stalking-horse1519
cover-hack1788
second horse1827
1519 in Archaeologia (1834) 25 420 Item pd for Shoyng of Thomas Lawes Stawkyng horse..iij d.
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 133 This is a beast standing amazed at euery strange sight, euen at the hunters bow and Arrowe, comming behind a stalking Horsse.
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Tonnelle, a Tunnell, or staulking horse for Partridges.
1621 G. Markham Hungers Preuention 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.
1621 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy ii. ii. iv. 341 Fowling.., be it with guns, lime, nets,..stawking-horses, setting dogges &c.
a1698 W. Blundell Crosby Rec. (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.
1706 J. Savage tr. R. de Piles Art of Painting 153 Giovanni d'Udine..[is] thought to have been the Inventor of the Stalking-Horse, which Poachers now use.
1780 Pitt 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’ Man. Brit. Rural Sports (ed. 12) i. i. i. §5 He is enabled to drop his net over the place without the trouble of using the stalking-horse.
1902 C. J. Cornish Naturalist on Thames 7 The flats of the Upper Thames, where..the wild duck are stalked with the stalking-horse, as of old.
2. figurative.
a. A person whose agency or participation in a proceeding is made use of to prevent its real design from being suspected.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > will > motivation > [noun] > motive > specious motive or pretext > specifically a person
stalking-horse1612
1612 J. Webster White Divel iii. i. 41 You..were made his engine, and his stauking horse, To undo my sister.
1694 W. Congreve Double-dealer ii. i. 20 Do you think her fit for nothing but to be a Stalking-Horse, to stand before you, while you take aim at my Wife?
a1763 W. Shenstone Progress of Taste i. in Wks. Verse & Prose (1764) I. 265 Let me provide Some human form to grace my side; At hand,..An useful, pliant, stalking-horse!
1963 Times 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.
1977 J. 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.
1980 Jewish 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.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > will > motivation > [noun] > motive > specious motive or pretext
coloura1393
coverturec1440
pretexta1535
pretencea1538
stalking-horse1579
stale1580
face1647
stooping-horse1659
stall1851
1579 W. Wilkinson Confut. Familye of Loue f. 70v Abusing the pretence of the Gospell as a stalking horse to leuell at others by.
1594 Order for Prayer To Rdr. sig. 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.
a1616 W. Shakespeare As you like It (1623) v. iv. 104 He vses his folly like a stalking-horse . View more context for this quotation
1624 J. Gee New Shreds Old Snare 14 They made Religion a stalking horse to intend their own profit.
1792 Ld. 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.
1827 W. Scott Life Napoleon I. vi. 223 His..popularity had..been the stalking-horse, through means of which, men..had taken aim at their own objects.
1835 W. Hamilton in Edinb. Rev. Jan. 433 Their conscience is merely a stalking-horse, moved by their interest, and to conceal it.
1865 C. Dickens Let. 30 Nov. (1999) XI. 114 The cattle plague is the butcher's stalking-horse.
1880 L. Stephen Alexander Pope ii. 55 His [Pope's] indefensible use of Addison's fame as a stalking-horse in the attack upon Dennis.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1915; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
<
n.1519