stalking-horse

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: stalk=ing-horse

CIDE DICTIONARY

stalking-horse, n. 

•  A horse, or a figure resembling a horse, behind which a hunter conceals himself from the game he is aiming to kill.  [1913 Webster]
•  Something used to cover up a secret project; a mask; a pretense.  [1913 Webster]

  "Hypocrisy is the devil's stalking-horse under an affectation of simplicity and religion."  [1913 Webster]

  "How much more abominable is it to make of him [Christ] and religion a stalking-horse, to get and enjoy the world!"  [1913 Webster]

ROGET THESAURUS

stalking-horse

Pretext

N pretext, pretense, pretension, plea, allegation, advocation, ostensible motive, ostensible ground, ostensible reason, phony reason, excuse, subterfuge, color, gloss, guise, cover, loop hole, starting hole, how to creep out of, salvo, come off, way of escape, handle, peg to hang on, room locus standi, stalking-horse, cheval de bataille, cue, pretense, put off, dust thrown in the eyes, blind, moonshine, mere pretext, shallow pretext, lame excuse, lame apology, tub to a whale, false plea, sour grapes, makeshift, shift, white lie, special pleading, soft sawder, ostensibly, alleged, apologetic, pretended, ostensibly, under color, under the plea, under the pretense of, under the guise of.

Precursor

N precursor, antecedent, precedent, predecessor, forerunner, vancourier, avant-coureur, pioneer, prodrome, prodromos, prodromus, outrider, leader, bellwether, herald, harbinger, foreboding, dawn, avant-courier, avant-garde, bellmare, forelooper, foreloper, stalking-horse, voorlooper, voortrekker, prelude, preamble, preface, prologue, foreword, avant-propos, protasis, proemium, prolusion, proem, prolepsis, prolegomena, prefix, introduction, heading, frontispiece, groundwork, preparation, overture, exordium, symphony, premises, prefigurement, omen, precursory, prelusive, prelusory, preludious, proemial, introductory, prefatory, prodromous, inaugural, preliminary, precedent, a precedent embalms a principle.