“preying” is a form of
prey
/pɹeɪ/ noun, verb
Forms preys preying preyed
- noun That which is or may be seized by animals to be devoured. “The deer became prey to the lion.”
- noun A person or thing given up as a victim.
- 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.”
- noun (archaic) Anything, such as goods, etc., taken or got by violence; something taken by force from an enemy in war.
- noun (archaic) The act of devouring other creatures; ravage.
- noun The victim of a disease. “He became the prey of dengue.”
- verb (intransitive) To act as a predator.
Synonyms
spoil booty plunder quarry target fair game feed raven predate
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.
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.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Anything, as goods, etc., taken or got by violence; anything taken by force from an enemy in war; spoil; booty; plunder.
- noun That which is or may be seized by animals or birds to be devoured; hence, a person given up as a victim.
- verb To take booty; to gather spoil; to ravage; to take food by violence.
Etymology [OF. preie, F. proie, L. praeda, probably for praeheda. See Prehensile, and cf. Depredate, Predatory.]
Etymology [OF. preier, preer, L. praedari, fr. praeda. See Prey, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “prey”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details