prey

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a person who is the aim of an attack, especially a victim of ridicule or exploitation, by some hostile person or influence

   I fell prey to muggers.

2. 2
   noun

   That which is or may be seized by animals to be devoured.

   The deer became prey to the lion.

3. 3
   noun

   A person or thing given up as a victim.

   [The helmsman] steered with no end of a swagger while you were by; but if he lost sight of you, he became instantly the prey of an abject funk […]

4. 4
   noun

   A living thing, usually an animal, that is eaten by another living thing.

   The rabbit was eaten by the coyote, so the rabbit is the coyote's prey.

5. 5
   noun

   Anything, such as goods, etc., taken or got by violence; something taken by force from an enemy in war.

   And they brought the captiues, and the pray, and the spoile vnto Moses and Eleazar the Priest, and vnto the Congregation of the children of Israel, vnto the campe at the plaines of Moab, which are by Iordan neere Iericho.

6. 6
   noun

   The act of devouring other creatures; ravage.

   Hog in sloth, fox in stealth, […] lion in prey.

7. 7
   noun

   The victim of a disease.

   He became the prey of dengue.

8. 8
   verb

   To act as a predator.

   The ridge had been a haven for birds and small earth creatures, creeping, crawling, and hopping in a little world of balanced ecology where wild things preyed and were preyed upon […]

Etymology

From Middle English praien, prayen, preyen, partly from the noun and partly from Old French praer, preer, earlier preder, from Late Latin praedō, collateral form of Latin praedor, from praeda (“plunder, booty, loot”) + -ō (verbal suffix). Doublet of prede.