predatory

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: pred=a=to=ry

CIDE DICTIONARY

predatory, a. [L. praedatorius, fr. praedari to plunder, fr. praeda prey. See Prey.].

•  Characterized by plundering; practicing rapine; plundering; pillaging; as, a predatory excursion; a predatory party.  Macaulay.  [1913 Webster]
•  Hungry; ravenous; as, predatory spirits.  [1913 Webster]

  "Exercise . . . maketh the spirits more hot and predatory."  [1913 Webster]
•  Living by preying upon other animals; carnivorous.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

predatory, adj.
1 (of an animal) preying naturally upon others.
2 (of a nation, State, or individual) plundering or exploiting others.

Derivative

predatorily adv. predatoriness n.

Etymology

L praedatorius (as PREDATOR)

THESAURUS

predatory

all-devouring, all-engulfing, avaricious, bloodsucking, carnivorous, despoiling, extortionate, grabby, grasping, greedy, larcenous, looting, lupine, marauding, parasitic, pillaging, plundering, plunderous, predacious, rapacious, raptorial, ravaging, ravening, ravenous, robbing, sharkish, spoliatory, thieving, usurious, voracious, vulturine, vulturous, wolfish

ROGET THESAURUS

predatory

Taking

N taking, reception, deglutition, appropriation, prehension, prensation, capture, caption, apprehension, deprehension, abreption, seizure, expropriation, abduction, ablation, subtraction, withdrawal, abstraction, ademption, adrolepsy, dispossession, deprivation, deprivement, bereavement, divestment, disherison, distraint, distress, sequestration, confiscation, eviction, rapacity, rapaciousness, extortion, vampirism, theft, resumption, reprise, reprisal, recovery, clutch, swoop, wrench, grip, haul, take, catch, scramble, taker, captor, subduction, taking, privative, prehensile, predaceous, predal, predatory, predatorial, lupine, rapacious, raptorial, ravenous, parasitic, bereft, at one fell swoop, give an inch and take an ell.

Stealing

N stealing, theft, thievery, latrociny, direption, abstraction, appropriation, plagiary, plagiarism, autoplagiarism, latrocinium, spoliation, plunder, pillage, sack, sackage, rapine, brigandage, foray, razzia, rape, depredation, raid, blackmail, piracy, privateering, buccaneering, license to plunder, letters of marque, letters of mark and reprisal, filibustering, filibusterism, burglary, housebreaking, badger game, robbery, highway robbery, hold-up, mugging, peculation, embezzlement, fraud, larceny, petty larceny, grand larceny, shoplifting, thievishness, rapacity, kleptomania, Alsatia, den of Cacus, den of thieves, blackmail, extortion, shakedown, Black Hand, thief, thieving, thievish, light-fingered, furacious, furtive, piratical, predaceous, predal, predatory, predatorial, raptorial, stolen, sic vos non vobis.