Trojan horse

alternative Trojan Horse

1. Greekhuman sciencesThe hollow wooden horse by which the Greeks allegedly gained access to Troy during the Trojan War.

plural Trojan horses · alternative Trojan Horse

1. figurativelyA subversive person or device placed within the ranks of the enemy.
2. computer securityA malicious program that is disguised as legitimate software.

   Worse than what could be observed about the program was the fear that it might be a Trojan horse program -- apparently innocent, but carrying a string of code instructing the computer to carry out a specific damaging instruction at some later time.

   1991, Katie Hafner, John Markoff, Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier, revised edition, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, pages 255–256

   Synonyms: Trojan

3. businessA seemingly favorable offer designed to trick customers into making exorbitant payments.
4. governmentA person, organization, social movement, piece of legislation, or ideology with a negative agenda or evil intentions under the guise of positive values or good intentions.

   [JD] Vance has said he suspects AI leaders of raising the alarm about safety risks as a “Trojan horse”.

   2026 September 16, Robert Booth, quoting JD Vance, “‘If you’re building Frankenstein, stop’: JD Vance dismisses calls for AI regulation”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   4 more examples

   Russia thinks of an atomic authority as a Trojan horse to get behind the iron curtain and impair her defense, and there is some reason historically for this view.

   1946 October, John Foster Dulles, quotee, American Bar Association Journal, volume 32, number 10, page 681

   Seen like this, huge western companies function like a Trojan horse when they are invited inside the boundaries of LDCs.

   1995, Peter Saunders, Capitalism, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, →ISBN, page 38

   Had the Israelis and the Americans realized that the Oslo accords were merely a “Trojan horse” designed to promote the higher goal of Palestine’s complete liberation, he argued, “they would never have opened their fortified gates and let it inside their walls.”

   2003, Efraim Karsh, Arafat's War, New York: Grove Press, →ISBN, page 64

   Indeed, it may turn out to be a Trojan horse that finally allows conservative ideologues, who have unsuccessfully laid siege to Medicare since the days of Barry Goldwater, to breach its political defenses.

   2003, Krugman, Paul R., The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century, W. W. Norton & Company, published 2004, →ISBN, page 449

present singular third person Trojan horses · participle present Trojan horsing · participle past Trojan horsed · past Trojan horsed · alternative Trojan Horse

1. alternativeAlternative form of Trojan-horse.

   But still, despite my initial shock at being expected to do a grownup job for my new grown-up salary, I was determined to keep the dream alive to some extent, by ticking a few of the sensible boxes while Trojan Horsing (yes, as a verb) some dot com fun in the back […]

   2008, Paul Carr, Bringing Nothing to the Party: True Confessions of a New Media Whore, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, →ISBN, page 88

   2 more examples

   You will disarm a group or person that holds simplistic attitudes—about relationships, education, financial success, morality, business ethics, religion, raising children—by giving that group or person Trojan Horsed instructions seemingly about how to do something mundane and unrelated.

   1999, Gary Hoffman, Glynis Hoffman, Adios, Strunk and White, 2nd edition, Huntington Beach, Calif.: Verve Press, →ISBN, page 180

   In its place arose a bilateral treaty that spelled out in basic terms that advances made in freedom of movement would be kept, under safeguards; free trade would be advanced bilaterally; goods imported from third countries would not be Trojan horsed; and countries would cooperate in areas of common interest.

   2009, Lee Rotherham, Ten Years On: Britain without the European Union, →ISBN, page 88

1. alternativeAlternative form of Trojan horse.