on the prowl
14
6.3
- idiom
- Informal
:
al acecho
- And so I'm on the prowl for a good fitting book.
- cat on the prowl
- wolf on the prowl
- guy on the prowl
People are going to work and they're there on the prowl waiting to rob you.
- People are going to work and they're there on the prowl waiting to rob you.
- Raleigh Mao is on the prowl.
- So he's going to have a, a, a government that is going to be endlessly on the prowl to suppress our misbehavior.
Examples
-
Always on the prowl for intruders.
-
Yeah, I guess it's time for me to get out on the prowl.
-
We're supposed to always be on the prowl.
Blog text (13) -
- Honey, I'm always on the prowl.
-
Prepare yourselves, because the cougars are on the prowl.
-
This morning, authorities still on the prowl searching for a missing tiger seen roaming the streets of Houston.
-
I'm always on the prowl for sailors, she purred, and she gave me a wink.
Fiction book (1998) -
She's on the prowl.
Fiction book (1999) -
The detective is on the prowl for clues that will solve the case.
-
During the festival, many vendors were on the prowl for customers.
Synonyms
190
1.2
To look carefully for something or someone
122
3.0
Look for and find a person or thing, often with effort
47
3.4
Watching carefully to find someone or something
41
6.0
To move quietly and carefully while looking for animals to catch
15
6.2
To search carefully for a long time to find hidden information
6
6.6
To move quietly and carefully toward an animal to catch it by surprise
5
5.3
Chasing someone quickly right after they run away
3
7.2
To look around or think hard to find something you need
To look for animals to hunt and eat
To search carefully through things in a small place like a bag or box
Going around looking for things to steal or people to attack
How Active
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly built from 'prowl' (to move stealthily/search for prey or opportunities) combined with the locative/state phrase 'on the', so a learner who knows the constituents can infer 'in a state of searching or looking for something'. This is a common, compositional English pattern (being 'on' a particular activity/state) and is cross-linguistically accessible, making it transparent to B1 learners who know the words.
Etymology
The phrase on the prowl comes from the picture of animals that move quietly at night to find food; to prowl means to walk slowly and watch for prey. So, when someone is on the prowl, they are 'actively looking' or 'searching for an opportunity'.