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• Trojan horse
  Trojan horse

  noun

  a gigantic hollow wooden horse, left by the Greeks upon their pretended abandonment of the siege of Troy. The Trojans took it into Troy and Greek soldiers concealed in the horse opened the gates to the Greek army at night and conquered the city.
• Trojan Horse
  Trojan Horse

  noun

  Greek myth the huge wooden hollow figure of a horse left outside Troy by the Greeks when they feigned retreat and dragged inside by the Trojans. The men concealed inside it opened the city to the final Greek assault

Trojan horse

American  

[troh-juhn hawrs] / ˈtroʊ dʒən ˌhɔrs /

noun

1. Classical Mythology. a gigantic hollow wooden horse, left by the Greeks upon their pretended abandonment of the siege of Troy. The Trojans took it into Troy and Greek soldiers concealed in the horse opened the gates to the Greek army at night and conquered the city.

2. a person or thing intended to undermine or destroy from within.

3. Also called Trojan.  Computers. a nonreplicating computer program planted illegally in another program to do damage locally when the software is activated.

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Trojan Horse British  

noun

1. Also called: the Wooden Horse.  Greek myth the huge wooden hollow figure of a horse left outside Troy by the Greeks when they feigned retreat and dragged inside by the Trojans. The men concealed inside it opened the city to the final Greek assault

2. a trap intended to undermine an enemy

3. computing a bug inserted into a program or system designed to be activated after a certain time or a certain number of operations

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Trojan Horse Cultural  

1. In classical mythology, a large, hollow horse made of wood used by the Greeks to win the Trojan War (see also Trojan War). The resourceful Odysseus had come up with the plan for the horse. The Greeks hid soldiers inside it and left it outside the gates of Troy. They anchored their ships just out of sight of Troy and left a man behind to say that the goddess Athena would be pleased if the Trojans brought the horse inside the city and honored it. The Trojans took the bait, against the advice of Cassandra and Laocoon. That night the Greek army returned to Troy. The men inside the horse emerged and opened the city gates for their companions. The Greeks sacked the city, thus winning the war.

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Discover More

The story of the Trojan horse is the source of the saying “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.”

Etymology

Origin of Trojan horse

First recorded in 1570–80, in 1835–40 Trojan horse for def. 2, and in 1970–75 Trojan horse for def. 3

Example Sentences

"PM2.5 is like a trojan horse," said Barrett, adding that particulate matter can carry metals such as cadmium and lead, known endocrine disruptors.

From Science Daily • Nov. 15, 2023

The Kings didn't initially use Diane as a trojan horse character – as in, a white character played by a famous actor leading us into a story featuring Black people and Black perspectives.

From Salon • Oct. 22, 2022

Open-source libraries can sometimes be used as a trojan horse into bigger projects As SolarWinds showed, this type of attack isn’t limited to open-source projects.

From The Verge • Aug. 30, 2022

"I don't wish for the integration of New Caledonia into the region to be used as a trojan horse for interests which are not in the interests of New Caledonia," he said.

From Reuters • Jul. 15, 2022

The Echo, then, is starting to look a lot like a trojan horse for Amazon, sneaking Alexa into the home and hooking customers on the larger voice-controlled ecosystem.

From Time • Jan. 17, 2017