prey

[ prey ]

noun

1. an animal hunted or seized for food, especially by a carnivorous animal.
2. a person or thing that is the victim of an enemy, a swindler, a disease, etc:

   a con man looking for his next prey.

   Synonyms: gull, dupe, mark

3. the action or habit of preying:

   a beast of prey.

4. Archaic. booty or plunder.

verb (used without object)

1. to seize and devour prey, as an animal does (usually followed by on or upon ):

   Foxes prey on rabbits.

2. to make raids or attacks for booty or plunder:

   The Vikings preyed on coastal settlements.

3. to exert a harmful or destructive influence:

   His worries preyed upon his mind.

4. to victimize another or others (usually followed by on or upon ):

   loan sharks that prey upon poor people.

prey

/ preɪ /

noun

1. an animal hunted or captured by another for food
2. a person or thing that becomes the victim of a hostile person, influence, etc
3. beast of prey
   an animal that preys on others for food
4. bird of prey
   a bird that preys on others for food
5. an archaic word for booty 1

verb

1. to hunt or seize food by killing other animals
2. to make a victim (of others), as by profiting at their expense
3. to exert a depressing or obsessive effect (on the mind, spirits, etc); weigh heavily (upon)

Derived Forms

• ˈpreyer, noun

Other Words From

• preyer noun
• un·preying adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of prey¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English prei(e), preye, “booty, plunder, prey,” from Old French proie, praie, preie, from Latin praeda; akin to prehendere to grasp, seize; prehension

Word History and Origins

Origin of prey¹

C13: from Old French preie, from Latin praeda booty; see predatory

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. fall prey (to), to be victimized, harmed, or killed: fall prey to internet scams.

   chickens that fell prey to a hawk;

   fall prey to internet scams.

Example Sentences

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

One of the problems with devices designed to make people essentially invisible to sharks is that eyesight isn’t the only tool they use to detect prey: They also use their sense of smell and their ability to detect vibrations in the water.

From Los Angeles Times

That’s because, from below, sharks are accustomed to seeing the dark silhouettes of their prey backlighted by the sun.

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