predatory animal
1
3.3
- noun
- /ˈprɛdətɔri ˈænɪməl/
:
animal depredador
- But the yearning for community was more than a utilitarian means of defense against predatory animals or other threats to physical existence.
- other predatory animals
Examples
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They go to war like herons, eagles, and other predatory animals.
Academic text (2003) -
These societies are not always in places that lack major predatory animals.
Academic text (2011) -
The walls were erected to protect the people from rampaging, predatory animals.
Fiction book (1991) -
Research suggests that negative reactions to large predatory animals are a function of fear, whereas reactions to spiders may have both a fear and a disgust component.
Academic text (1999) -
They might then alight on another semantically distinct patch, for example, predatory animals such as lion, tiger, and jaguar.
Blog text (32) -
The documentary highlighted how predatory animals, like wolves and eagles, play a crucial role in maintaining the ecosystem.
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In the wild, predatory animals rely on their hunting skills to find food and survive.
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Many predatory animals hunt in packs, which increases their chances of capturing prey.
Synonyms
204
2.9
An animal that hunts and eats other animals
1
5.1
An animal that hunts and kills other animals to eat
Antonyms
How Predatory
1
3.3
19
4.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'an animal that hunts and kills other animals for food' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'predatory' (hunts/eats prey) with 'animal' (an organism with movement). This is a straightforward compositional adjective + noun pattern that is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Predatory animal The noun predatory animal comes from a simple image of an animal that chases and kills other animals for food, like a lion chasing a deer. Here predatory means one that 'hunts' and animal is the creature, so the phrase means 'an animal that hunts and kills other animals'.