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 on".
Two million years after the uneasy truce imposed by the dinosaurs' death, the mammals had started to prey on each other.
How strange it is that a bird, under the form of woodpecker, should have been created to prey on insects on the ground.
Strictly speaking, all the creatures of Nacre had been herbivorous until man arrived there, since there had been no animal kingom to prey on.
He had felt in her mind that she was not willing to prey on the human race for nourishment.
But how could we ever earn the right to prey on such a great embodiment of the Spirit of Life?
He was one of them, a creature of the damned, doomed to prey on the blood of innocents.