stalker
Americannoun
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a person who pursues game, prey, or a person stealthily.
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a person who harasses another person, as a former lover, a famous person, etc., in an aggressive, often threatening and illegal manner.
Hollywood stars often have security guards to keep dangerous stalkers at bay.
Etymology
Origin of stalker
Explanation
You might joke about your neighborhood stalker who always seems to know where you've been and what time you get home from work every day, but it can actually be a little creepy to know that someone's watching you. A stalker can describe anyone who sneaks around, but it usually means a person who follows one specific individual obsessively. The word wasn't used this way until the early 1990s. Before that, it was mostly used interchangeably with "poacher" to mean "someone who pursues and steals game animals." The Old English word stelan lead to the English word steal, which is most likely the root of stalk.
Vocabulary lists containing stalker
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.
Scottish lawyer Fiona Harvey outed herself as the inspiration for the show's obsessive stalker, suing Netflix for defamation and negligence for billing it as "a true story".
From BBC • Apr. 21, 2026
Three members of Dundonnell Mountain Rescue Team, along with the spaniel's owner and a local deer stalker, made a search the following morning when she was found and rescued.
From BBC • Feb. 17, 2026
Yet there are red flags: William has a stalker, a woman nicknamed the Rabbit, who sends Sam scary messages demanding she back off.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 23, 2026
The 1987 movie features Schwarzenegger’s Dutch leading a multiracial band of bros on a black ops mission to eliminate guerrillas in a Central American jungle, only to be butchered by an invisible stalker from space.
From Salon • Nov. 12, 2025
During the brief lull between the late-lunch rush and the early-bird dinner rush, I wait for Jillian outside the bathroom like a stalker.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
