prey on

1. Hunt, especially in order to eat, as in Their cat preys on all the rodents in the neighborhood . [c. 1600]

2. Exert a baneful or injurious effect, as in Guilt preyed on his mind . [c. 1700]

3. Plunder or pillage; also, make a profit at someone else's expense, victimize. For example, Vikings preyed on the coastal towns of England , or The rich have been preying on the poor for centuries . [Late 1500s]

Example Sentences

The government also intends to strengthen the powers regulator Ofsted has to investigate and fine "exploitative" children's home providers that prey on a stretched care system.

From BBC

The demand for Glastonbury tickets inevitably attracts scam artists and fraudsters, who prey on people's desperation to separate them from their money.

From BBC

Expect plenty of hot takes, including a barrage of think pieces, seeing as, in this telling, the Wizard is an authoritarian leader using scapegoating to prey on — and stoke — people’s fears.

From Los Angeles Times

More importantly, there’s the inevitability that Trump and a paid-off Congress will shove aside the Biden era’s aggressive regulators, like Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, and allow the digital assets sector to freely prey on more retail investors and promulgate more scams.

From Slate

“Every day, sexual predators use the internet’s relative anonymity to prey on vulnerable youth,” U.S.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• bully
• devour
• exploit
• feed on
• fleece
• haunt
• intimidate
• oppress
• plunder
• take advantage of
• victimize