# prey

Pronunciation: say "PRAY" /pɹeɪ/

## Noun

1. A living creature, usually an animal, that is hunted and eaten by another.
   - Simple: An animal that other animals hunt and eat.
   - _Hawks scan the open ground for prey moving in the grass._
   - _When prey grows scarce, foxes range much farther for food._
3. A creature that an animal seizes, or may seize, in order to devour it.
   - Simple: A creature that a hunting animal catches and eats.
   - _The crocodile dragged its prey beneath the surface of the river._
   - _Pack hunters can bring down prey far larger than any single member._
4. A person or thing that is given up to or victimized by a hostile force.
   - Simple: A person or thing that becomes the victim of someone harmful.
   - _Tourists who flash cash quickly become prey for skilled pickpockets._
   - _She fell prey to the con artist's smooth promises._
5. A person or other living thing that falls victim to a disease.
   - Simple: A person or animal that suffers and is harmed by a disease.
   - _The epidemic took the elderly as its earliest prey._
   - _Malnourished populations readily become prey to infectious disease._

## Verb

2. To behave as a predator, hunting and feeding on other animals.
   - Simple: To hunt and kill other animals for food.
   - _Hawks prey on rodents that venture into open fields._
   - _Several bat species prey almost exclusively on night-flying insects._

## Noun

6. Goods or other property taken by violence, especially seized by force from an enemy in war. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: Things taken by force, especially from an enemy in war.
   - _The raiders loaded their ships with prey seized from the coastal towns._
   - _After the siege, the general distributed the prey among his officers._
7. The action of devouring other creatures; destruction wrought by feeding upon them. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: The act of killing and eating other animals.
   - _The villagers dreaded the bear's prey upon their livestock through the lean months._
   - _Such was the wolves' prey that scarcely a lamb survived the season._

## Origin

**Meanings 1, 3–7** — From Middle English preye, borrowed from Anglo-Norman and Old French preie, a variant of proie, from Latin praeda.
**Meaning 2** — From Middle English praien, partly from the noun and partly from Old French praer (earlier preder), from Late Latin praedō, a form of Latin praedor, from praeda ("plunder, booty, loot").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/prey (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).