prey
/pɹeɪ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.98 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A living thing, usually an animal, that is eaten by another living thing.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "The deer became prey to the lion."
- "Already sees herself the monster's prey."
- "[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 […]"
- "Being so inflexible, the railway was easy prey to road competition, and the arrival of unregulated lorry transport from farm fields to town centres quickly captured all locally generated business."
- "The rabbit was eaten by the coyote, so the rabbit is the coyote's prey."
- "Stranded without any weapons, we made very easy prey."
Etymology
From Middle English preye, prei, preyȝe, borrowed from Anglo-Norman and Old French preie, one of the variants of proie, from Latin praeda. Compare predator. Doublet of prede.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *gʰed-, preye, -, preie, praeda, praien