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Glite Dictionary
🐇 An animal hunted 🕵️ To exploit 😟 A target person 🦉 To hunt animals
to prey

to prey

16 3.7
To hunt and eat other animals for food
  • verb
  • /prɛɪ/
translation icon : cazar
  • During the night, owls prey on mice and insects to feed their young.
  • prey on fish
  • prey on animals
  • prey on insects

I you actually can because then coyotes will come and get those ants, frogs, lizards and other critters that prey on small insects near water.

Examples

  • The lion often preys on zebras and antelopes in the savanna.

  • Nonetheless, crabs occasionally prey on seahorses, as do large fish such as tuna, snappers, skates, and rays.

    Academic text (1990)

  • Think they should be with fish... and they - that way they could only prey on fish.

    Head (1968)

  • The sea swarms with living things that prey on one another to survive.

    The Land That Time Forgot (1974)

  • But for the most part, animals don't prey on human beings.

  • The fact seems to be that wolves prefer to prey on wild rather than domestic ungulates.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • But while bears usually only prey on other animals during chance encounters, wolves actively track them down.

    Academic text (1999)

  • Without those animals to prey on, Archaic peoples relied on smaller animals and plants for their food.

    Academic text (2011)

  • They prey on great white nurseries as a reliable food supply.

    Deep Blue Sea 3 (2020)

  • Hawks prey on small rodents and other birds while soaring high in the sky.

Synonyms

to feed
vsto prey
426 1.0

To eat food, especially for animals

requires pursuing and catching other animals before eating them
to hunt
vsto prey
367 1.4

To chase and kill wild animals for food or sport

focuses only on chasing and eating animals to get food not sport
to feed on
vsto prey
69 2.9

To eat something or get strength and ideas from it

involves chasing and catching other animals before eating them
to hunt down
vsto prey
6 4.0

Chase and take wild animals for food or sport

includes feeding after capture rather than only persistent pursuit
to predate
vsto prey
  • Specialized
1 7.2

To hunt and eat another animal

emphasizes catching and feeding rather than explicitly naming killing
to raven
vsto prey
  • Archaic
9.9

To take goods by force from places during war or attack

refers specifically to chasing catching and eating animals for food

Phrasal Verbs

to stalk its prey
6 6.6

To move quietly and carefully toward an animal to catch it by surprise

to prey on fears
1 7.4

To use people's fears to get money or power

to search for prey
5.0

To look for animals to hunt and eat

Compounds

bird of prey
9 3.8

A bird that hunts and eats other animals, like eagles or hawks

beast of prey
1 5.1

An animal that hunts and kills other animals to eat

How Predatory

to maul
  • NSFW
29 7.2
to devour
53 3.9
to prey
16 3.7
to capture
884 2.8
to scavenge
4 6.7
to forage
22 4.9

Surface Forms

prey infinitive
preyed past
preyed past participle
preying present participle
preys third person singular

Etymology

Prey comes from the old Latin word praeda, meaning 'booty' or 'something taken'. To prey on an animal is to hunt, catch, and feed on it, keeping the original idea of taking something for food.