English Explanatory Dictionary

Manchurian candidate

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A person of influence, especially a politician, who is being manipulated by an enemy power to harm the interests of their own country, possibly without their own full awareness.

Word forms

Manchurian candidate Manchurian candidates

Etymology

From the title of the 1959 novel or 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate, in which the son of a prominent US political family is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for a communist conspiracy. Also comes from the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo during World War II.

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