prey
Pronunciation Noun
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Pronunciation Noun
prey
- (archaic) Anything, as goods, etc., taken or got by violence; anything taken by force from an enemy in war
- Synonyms: spoil, booty, plunder
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, Numbers 31:32 ↗:
- And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest.
- That which is or may be seized by animals or birds to be devoured; hence, a person given up as a victim.
- Already sees herself the monster's prey.
- 1899 March, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number MI, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], OCLC 1042815524 ↗, part II:
- [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 {{...}
- A living thing that is eaten by another living thing.
- 1611, King James Version, Job iv. ii
- The old lion perisheth for lack of prey.
- The rabbit was eaten by the coyote, so the rabbit is the coyote's prey.
- 1611, King James Version, Job iv. ii
- The act of devouring other creatures; ravage.
- c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene iv]:
- Hog in sloth, fox in stealth, […] lion in prey.
- The victim of a disease.
- German: Beute
- Italian: squartamento
- Russian: же́ртва
prey (preys, present participle preying; past and past participle preyed)
- (intransitive) To act as a predator.
- 2001, Karen Harden McCracken, The Life History of a Texas Birdwatcher (page 278)
- 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 […]
- 2001, Karen Harden McCracken, The Life History of a Texas Birdwatcher (page 278)
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003