Trojan horse
n 1: a subversive group that supports the enemy and engages in
espionage or sabotage; an enemy in your midst [syn: fifth
column}, Trojan horse]
2: a program that appears desirable but actually contains
something harmful; "the contents of a trojan can be a virus
or a worm"; "when he downloaded the free game it turned out
to be a trojan horse" [syn: trojan, trojan horse]
3: a large hollow wooden figure of a horse (filled with Greek
soldiers) left by the Greeks outside Troy during the Trojan
War [syn: Trojan Horse, Wooden Horse]
Trojan horse nounEtymology: from the large hollow wooden horse filled with Greek
soldiers and introduced within the walls of Troy by a stratagem Date:
1837 1. someone or something intended to defeat or subvert from
within usually by deceptive means 2. a seemingly useful computer
program that contains concealed instructions which when activated perform
an illicit or malicious action (as destroying data files); also
the concealed instructions of such a program — compare virus
Trojan horse
(Trojan horses)
1. If you describe a person or thing as a Trojan horse, you mean that they are being
used to hide someone's true purpose or intentions.
Was Colombo the emissary of Pope Paul, his Trojan horse within the Commission?...N-COUNT: usu sing, oft N for/of n [disapproval]
2. A Trojan horse is a computer virus which is inserted into a program or system
and is designed to take effect after a particular period of time or a certain number of
operations. (COMPUTING)
N-COUNT
Trojan horse n. [coined by MIT-hacker-turned-NSA-spook Dan Edwards] A
malicious security-breaking program that is disguised as something
benign, such as a directory lister, archiver, game, or (in one notorious
1990 case on the Mac) a program to find and destroy viruses! See back
door}, virus, worm, phage, mockingbird.
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