Headhunter

//ˈhɛdˌhʌntɚ// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person who practises headhunting, the taking and preserving of a person's head after killing them.

    "We were accommodated here in the verandah of the large house, in which were several great baskets of dried human heads, the trophies of past generations of head-hunters."

  2. 2
    a savage who cuts off and preserves the heads of enemies as trophies wordnet
  3. 3
    One who recruits skilled personnel, especially executive-level ones, for a company.

    "Near-synonyms: recruiter, talent scout"

  4. 4
    a recruiter of personnel (especially for corporations) wordnet
  5. 5
    A pitcher who throws at the batter's head.

    "Thankfully, there aren't many headhunters in the modern game."

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  1. 6
    A player who uses a hockey stick to attempt to strike an opponent's head.

    "He is known as a goon and a headhunter."

Synonyms

All synonyms
head shrinkerhead-shrinkerrecruitertalent scout

Example

More examples

"The company president has hired a headhunter to find us a new sales manager."

Etymology

From head + hunter.

Related phrases

hockey stick

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.