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.

noun

1. (archaic) Anything, such as goods, etc., taken or got by violence; something taken by force from an enemy in war
2. That which is or may be seized by animals or birds to be devoured
3. A person or thing given up as a victim.
   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. November 18 2020, Howard Johnston, “The missing 'Lincs' and the sole survivor”, in Rail, page 58
4. A living thing that is eaten by another living thing.
   The rabbit was eaten by the coyote, so the rabbit is the coyote's prey.
   Nonetheless, some insect prey take advantage of clutter by hiding in it. Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them. 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 206–7
5. (archaic) The act of devouring other creatures; ravage.
6. The victim of a disease.

verb

1. (intransitive) 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 […] 2001, Karen Harden McCracken, The Life History of a Texas Birdwatcher, page 278