stalker

noun

stalk·​er ˈstȯ-kər 

plural stalkers

1

: a person who stalks : a person who pursues someone obsessively and aggressively to the point of harassment

celebrity stalkers

In 1990, California was the first state to pass a stalking law that made it a crime to follow, threaten, or harass someone—especially if the stalker threatened violence.

—George

Eighty-seven percent of stalkers are men. Women tend to be victimized by lone male stalkers whom they know, while men are more likely to be stalked by strangers, and half of male victims' stalkers had an accomplice.

—Matthew Klein

2

: a person or animal that pursues quarry or prey stealthily

a deer stalker

Though I catch my share of trout, I do it by being a good stalker and knowing where the fish lie …

—Bill Barich

Polar bears are superb stalkers, and have a way of suddenly appearing heart-stoppingly close.

—John P. Wiley, Jr.

Examples of stalker in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Charting the darkly comic story of creator Richard Gadd’s experience with a stalker, the unexpected hit was streamed nearly 90M times on Netflix and cleaned up at the Emmys. —Jake Kanter, Deadline, 24 Dec. 2024

This moment of reverie in her essay is soon undercut by an encounter with a stalker. —Molly Fischer, The New Yorker, 4 Dec. 2024

Given her ambiguous relationship with privacy law, she’s also been called a thief and a stalker. —airmail.news, 26 Oct. 2024

When aerial photos are leaked of the couple in Zach’s pool and a stalker takes aim at Zoe, re-creating creepy scenes from her first novel, her idea has a plot that presents both legal and romantic dilemmas. —Paula L. Woods, Los Angeles Times, 22 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2