ninja

noun

1. A person trained in ninjutsu, especially (historical) one used for espionage, assassination, and other tasks requiring stealth during Japan's shogunate period.

   “He used to work in the Japanese agency as a ninja.”

   “The men... are now learning to be ninja or ‘stealers-in’.”

   “Spies prowled Japan from the seventh century, but the secretive ninja left few written records.”

2. (figuratively)A person considered similarly skillful to the historical ninja, especially in covert or stealthy operation.

   “For months the Japanese spoke of national-security adviser Henry Kissinger as a ninja—the magician of Japanese legends who performs supernatural acts and practices sorcery.”

   “Other bankers are dubbing themselves ninja, modern-day descendants of the superspies of 17th century samurai houses.”

   “Young banking and securities firms executives (nicknamed the ninja...) are especially assigned to cultivate relations with the finance ministry. Only verbal instructions are ever given to the ninja.”

   “A JavaScript ninja should write lots of code and build things!”

3. (figuratively, in-plural, slang)A person considered similarly skillful to the historical ninja, especially in covert or stealthy operation.

   “I had TOTK running on my pc 2 weeks before it released on the switch and I'm still here. They can send the ninjas, I'm waiting.”

   “Nintendo ninjas were inside the discord, watching. Now all the Yuzu devs have turned over all electronic devices, websites, logs...”

4. (dated, especially, figuratively, informal)A person considered similarly skillful to the historical ninja, especially in covert or stealthy operation.

   “A ninja developer can take advantage of this when building large software systems, adding a bit of C# and a dabble of Python.”

   “If you're a Linux ninja, this book still gives you a solid reference on the Raspberry Pi and the version of Linux it uses, but no prior Linux knowledge is required.”

   “But in a trawl of British job adverts in 2019, Bartleby found requests for "a call-centre ninja", "a black-belt prioritisation ninja" and one post demanding "a ninja-like attention to detail ".”

5. (figuratively)A person considered to look like the historical ninja in some way, including (historical slang) an amateur private miner in Mongolia.

   “He immediately suspected they were ninjas because, he said, they were dressed in black and wore masks, trademarks of the mysterious assassins who have been sowing terror across East Java in recent months.”

   “Yen buyers were more subdued... fearing the Bank of Japan's new strategy of covert intervention to buy U.S. dollars through agent banks—described by some as the central bank's ninjas or secret agents.”

   “Many were former nomads, but as the gold rush gathered pace, students, vets and taxi drivers from Ulan Bator joined the ninjas, not just in Ogoomor but in other gold towns across the country.”

6. (euphemistic)Synonym of nigga as a friendly term of address.

   “What's up, ninjas?”

   “I'm thicker than a Snicker, I'm thicker than your ninja!”

7. (euphemistic)Synonym of nigga as a friendly term of address.

   “What up, my ninja!”

8. (derogatory, ethnic, euphemistic, offensive, slur, vulgar)nigger.
9. An anti-government Bakongo rebel, active in Pool Department, Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville).

   “To punish a population seen as Ninja sympathisers, the government last year effectively sealed off the entire region and barred all aid, turning Pool into a blank space on the humanitarian map.”

   “While the last major clashes were in 2003 in Pool — a southern region between the capital Brazzaville and the port city of Pointe Noire — Ninjas had continued to roam the region, robbing civilians and hijacking trains to the oil-rich coast.”

   “The Ninjas were loyal to former Prime Minister Bernard Kolelas, the father of Guy-Brice Parfait Kolelas, who stood in the presidential election in March and got 15% of the vote.”

adj

1. (informal, not-comparable)Fast and sneaky.

   “After Marshall fell asleep Elisa eventually jumped into the bed with me while I was turned facing away from her. She was very ninja about it as she put it.”

   “With a meager budget, the decision was made to go to a new construction site after dark to borrow some needed lumber. The ninja theft went as planned.”

   “Double entrapments thus take place in Judah's move: Judah turned Tamar's father's home into a trap for Tamar, and he also trapped Shelah in Bathshua's home. Would Bathshua have approved of Judah's ninja move?”

   “[…]no one else would even know of such a stealthy ninja steal.”

2. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, not-comparable)Initialism of no income, no job or assets, describing credit characteristics of a borrower, usually of a residential mortgage.

verb

1. (ambitransitive)To act or move like a ninja, particularly with regard to a combination of speed, power, and stealth.

   “I leapt up, ninja'd over to Gav's bed and wheeched the duvet off.”

   “In our dark house we were ninja-ing around with water guns.”

   “I ninja'd my way into Kung Fu Records to hang out with those merry pranksters the Vandals.”

2. (Internet)to beat someone to a post; to make the same reply just before the other party finishes typing, making their response redundant.

   “When I hit post, I saw that Blue Emu had ninja'd me, so I just deleted my reply.”

3. (Internet, slang)To claim an item through abuse of game mechanics.

   “That damn warrior ninja'd an epic-quality wand even though he can't even use it!”