scalphunter
nounEtymology From scalp + hunter.
1
A warrior who collects the scalps of vanquished enemies.
2
Espionage, Government, Military, Politics, War An agent who vets potential defectors.
- There is one class of spook we have not encountered as yet. This is the scalp-hunter, or defector-hunter. Quite often a scalp-hunter will be more valuable than almost any other intelligence operator.1982, Richard Deacon, With My Little Eye: The Memoirs of a Spy-Hunter, page 103:
- But agency policy is that the case officer is, in the jargon, a "scalp hunter" who must turn a contact into an agent […]2002, Angelo Codevilla, Informing Statecraft, page 82:
- Related terms
- scalphunting