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

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

Federal investigators unsealed a federal indictment against the founder of Bad Boy Entertainment on Sept. 17, alleging he used his businesses, influence and employees to prey on women for years, luring them and forcing them to take part in so-called “freak-offs” — sex performances with male sex workers that were at times recorded and occasionally lasted days.

From Los Angeles Times

Without such a data privacy law, foreign governments and adversaries can still acquire Americans’ data by stealing it, or by using a straw purchaser to buy it from the myriad data brokers who prey on our personal information every day.

From Salon

Related Words

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