Trojan horse
1
7.4
- noun
- /ˈtroʊdʒən hɔrs/
:
caballo de Troya
- And this is where a firm is really being a Trojan horse to a competitor to companies like MasterCard, Visa, Discover and Amex.
Trump is a Trojan horse for many, many people, both foreign and domestic, who want to wreak havoc on a lot of the global population.
- Trump is a Trojan horse for many, many people, both foreign and domestic, who want to wreak havoc on a lot of the global population.
- And that's really the Trojan horse for fixing the world.
- And this is where a firm is really being a Trojan horse to a competitor to companies like MasterCard, Visa, Discover and Amex.
- But we're not going to take our foot off the gas on this because it is beyond handmaid tale what these people are trying to do with their Trojan horse.
Examples
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But the Right is not fooled: it sees Green as a Trojan horse for Red, the attempt "to abolish capitalism and replace it with some kind of eco-socialism."
Blog text (31) -
The new policy was a Trojan horse, appearing beneficial but actually aimed at increasing control over workers.
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And that's really the Trojan horse for fixing the world.
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So it's classic, classic Trojan horse tactic is what's going on.
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But everyone has to realize that Donald Trump is a Trojan horse for far more dangerous actors that are going to come out of that horse.
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Trump is a Trojan horse for many, many people, both foreign and domestic, who want to wreak havoc on a lot of the global population.
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From the perspective of non western civilizations and diverse citizenship, the two cosmopolitan rights appear as the Trojan horse of Western imperialism.
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Unless, of course, cleverly disguised as a Potemkin Kabuki Trojan horse, in which case he will completely destroy Social Security, only it will not look destroyed.
Blog text (22) -
On the other hand, if Adobe brought its gifts to the JavaScript camp, a cleaner, more turbocharged JavaScript would be a Trojan horse that even Apple couldn't refuse.
Blog text (22) -
Many people view social media as a Trojan horse for manipulating public opinion without anyone realizing it.
Synonyms
11
8.1
A clever trick that deceives people or hides the truth
1
9.9
A person or thing used to hide someone's real plan
How Deceptive
Surface Forms
Morphology
Trojan + horse
The meaning relies on a specific historical/cultural story (the wooden horse from Troy) and is not a predictable composition of 'Trojan' (person from Troy) + 'horse' (animal). A B1 learner who knows the literal meanings of the constituents would not infer the sense of a deceptive or hidden threat without prior exposure, so this is idiomatic and unpredictable.
Etymology
Trojan horse comes from a famous Greek story where soldiers hid inside a large wooden horse and left it as a gift outside the city of Troy. The Trojans brought the horse inside, the hidden soldiers came out at night and opened the gates, so today a Trojan horse means a person, thing, or plan that 'seems harmless but hides danger'.