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
Diurnal to crepuscular habits of this mouse may protect it from some of the nocturnal carnivorous mammals and raptorial birds.
From Speciation and Evolution of the Pygmy Mice, Genus Baiomys by Packard, Robert L.
But even when the war is open and declared, as between a raptorial species and its victims, the former is manifestly driven by necessity.
From Argentine Ornithology, Volume I (of 2) A descriptive catalogue of the birds of the Argentine Republic. by Hudson, W. H. (William Henry)
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.
