predacious
Americanadjective
adjective
-
(of animals) habitually hunting and killing other animals for food
-
preying on others
Other Word Forms
- predaciousness noun
- predacity noun
- unpredaceous adjective
- unpredaceously adverb
- unpredaceousness noun
- unpredacious adjective
- unpredaciously adverb
- unpredaciousness noun
Etymology
Origin of predacious
First recorded in 1705–15; pred(atory) + -acious
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.
She’s predacious, conflicted, at times disorganized — and ultimately unknowable.
From Washington Post • Dec. 1, 2022
The picture tells the story of a young woman, Danae, who’s been locked in a high tower by her father to keep her away from predacious men.
From New York Times • Aug. 12, 2021
She feels shut out by the city’s predacious, moneyed tribes, battered by its “impenetrable shapes” and “fierce elbows.”
From New York Times • Jan. 17, 2020
Indigenous birds include the black-necked stilt, the claw-footed nene, the short-eared owl and the blue-faced booby, and there are such unique fauna as the monk seal, the hoary bat and the predacious caterpillar.
From Time Magazine Archive
Now, four days later, Nukita warned us that a similarly predacious swarm of print and television reporters lay in wait for us in Kathmandu.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
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.
