prey
verb
- to hunt or victimize
noun
- living thing that is eaten by another living thing; that which is or may be seized by animals or birds to be devoured
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /pɹeɪ/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English preye, prei, preyȝe, borrowed from Anglo-Norman and Old French preie, one of the variants of proie, from Latin praeda. Compare predator. Doublet of prede.
- That which is or may be seized by animals to be devoured.
“The deer became prey to the lion.”
“Already sees herself the monster's prey.”
- A person or thing given up as a victim.
“[The helmsman] steered with no end of a swagger while you were by; but if he lost sight of you, he became instantly the prey of an abject funk […]”
“Being so inflexible, the railway was easy prey to road competition, and the arrival of unregulated lorry transport from farm fields to town centres quickly captured all locally generated business.”
- A living thing, usually an animal, that is eaten by another living thing.
“The rabbit was eaten by the coyote, so the rabbit is the coyote's prey.”
“Stranded without any weapons, we made very easy prey.”
- Anything, such as goods, etc., taken or got by violence; something taken by force from an enemy in war.
“And they brought the captiues, and the pray, and the spoile vnto Moses and Eleazar the Priest, and vnto the Congregation of the children of Israel, vnto the campe at the plaines of Moab, which are by Iordan neere Iericho.”
- The act of devouring other creatures; ravage.
“Hog in sloth, fox in stealth, […] lion in prey.”
- The victim of a disease.
“He became the prey of dengue.”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English praien, prayen, preyen, partly from the noun and partly from Old French praer, preer, earlier preder, from Late Latin praedō, collateral form of Latin praedor, from praeda (“plunder, booty, loot”) + -ō (verbal suffix). Doublet of prede.
- To act as a predator.
“The ridge had been a haven for birds and small earth creatures, creeping, crawling, and hopping in a little world of balanced ecology where wild things preyed and were preyed upon […]”