preyed
- 1Simple past and past participle of prey.
Con artists preyed on elderly people living alone.
Lions preyed on the antelope as the herd crossed the river.
Note
Since the verb takes no direct object, its victim enters through a preposition, on or upon: lions preyed on the herd, never preyed the herd. The same preyed serves after have and in the passive, and the passive keeps its preposition stranded at the end: the elderly were preyed upon. The pattern holds whether the predator is an animal or a swindler.
Small birds were preyed on by hawks all summer.
Isolated villages had been preyed upon by raiders for years.
preyed is a form of prey
prey, verb: To behave as a predator, hunting and feeding on other animals. Full entry
- Spelling
- prey → preyed: add -ed
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /d/.
Use it in a sentence
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