headhunter
Americannoun
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headhunters
plural
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a person who engages in headhunting.
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a personnel recruiter for a corporation or executive recruitment agency.
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an executive recruitment agency.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of headhunter
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Within a single family, he says, a grandfather might be a former headhunter, his face still tattooed; two generations later, his grandson might play guitar in a rock band.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
Platner, who had no political experience, was recruited into the race by Daniel Moraff, an Ivy League–educated consultant who served as a headhunter for progressive and unconventional Democratic candidates.
From Slate ● Jul. 11, 2026
A series of short bets made in the third quarter of 2025 on software companies including headhunter marketplace ZipRecruiter and IT-services provider Unisys initially failed to deliver.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 4, 2026
ByteDance, which has the biggest AI team in Chinese tech, sometimes pays salaries two or three times the market average to recruit top talent, said industry headhunter Shen Wei.
From Barron's ● Feb. 14, 2026
Just before the sale closed, he was approached by a headhunter to become the CEO of a new company called Mosaic Communications, forged by two now-legendary innovators—Jim Clark and Marc Andreessen.
From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman
Diop didn’t know it, but the man was part of a network of headhunters recruiting for Russia’s military.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 11, 2026
In November, Britain's domestic intelligence agency warned that Chinese spies disguised as headhunters had targeted parliamentarians online.
From Barron's ● Dec. 2, 2025
The alert said individuals working on behalf of the Chinese Ministry of State Security were posing as "headhunters" on platforms like LinkedIn and targeting people working in British politics to obtain insider information.
From BBC ● Nov. 21, 2025
"An overhaul creates nervousness among all employees, also among the top performers," said Lars Schweizer, professor of finance at Frankfurt University, adding they often get approached by headhunters with offers from competitors.
From Reuters ● Jun. 12, 2023
Another 18.8 percent used formal means — advertisements, headhunters — and roughly 20 percent applied directly.
From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
