The Collaborative International Dictionary
Prey \Prey\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Preyed; p. pr. & vb. n. Preying.] [OF. preier, preer, L. praedari, fr. praeda. See Prey, n.] To take booty; to gather spoil; to ravage; to take food by violence. More pity that the eagle should be mewed, While kites and buzzards prey at liberty. --Shak. To prey on or To prey upon.
To take prey from; to despoil; to pillage; to rob.
--Shak.To seize as prey; to take for food by violence; to seize and devour.
--Shak.To wear away gradually; to cause to waste or pine away; as, the trouble preyed upon his mind.
--Addison.
Usage examples of "to prey upon".
With the rate of mutation and adaptive radiation on this planet, it was easy to imagine the appearance of life forms able to prey upon even the huge submarine netters which supplied the keeps with fish.
Tacit and I were out in the forest at the time, seeking passing merchants to prey upon.
It is not likely that a creature so ungentle, whose head could have been sold in Sky for a guinea, should be kept alive only to gratify the malice of sending him to prey upon a neighbour: and the passage from Sky is wider than a fox would venture to swim, unless he were chased by dogs into the sea, and perhaps than his strength would enable him to cross.
If they don't have anything to prey upon, they go away, and they won't be there when the next inevitable pest invasion arrives.
Compared to the other creatures of this world the ants were small, but no lumbering beetle dared to march insolently in their way, nor did any carnivores try to prey upon them.
If something evil came to prey upon humans, evil that preyed upon those who were not human would be attracted.
Can you really make a choice that will result in you going out each day to prey upon people by drinking their blood?