raptorial
Americanadjective
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preying upon other animals; predatory.
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adapted for seizing prey, as the bill or claws of a bird.
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belonging or pertaining to the Raptores, a former order in which the falconiform and strigiform birds were erroneously grouped together.
adjective
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(of the feet of birds) adapted for seizing prey
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(esp of birds) feeding on prey; predatory
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of or relating to birds of prey
Etymology
Origin of raptorial
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The team also examined owl and raptorial predators however while the effects were the same, they were not as evident.
From Science Daily • Nov. 21, 2023
In either case, we clearly have underestimated the abilities of those big, beady, raptorial eyes.
From Scientific American • Oct. 13, 2018
Equipped with grasping, raptorial appendages, these Ordovician hunters plucked up soft-bodied prey and fed it into their camera-shutter mouths.
From Science Magazine • May 25, 2011
Since most of the raptorial predators that would prey on pocket gophers do not have a wide hunting territory, it is likely that the gophers were taken within a short distance of the cave.
From Pleistocene Pocket Gophers From San Josecito Cave, Nuevo Leon, Mexico by Russell, Robert J.
Their more feline, more raptorial attributes are only alluded to in the verses where he is obviously objective and impersonal.
From Suspended Judgments Essays on Books and Sensations by Powys, John Cowper
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
