I. noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a bird of prey (= that hunts and eats small animals )
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A single bird of prey hovered overhead.
bird of prey
easy prey
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Tourists are easy prey for thieves.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
easy
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Like a wolf pack scenting easy prey , they dismounted and spread out.
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Men prowled the motel like packs of wolves searching out easy prey .
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More rarely, I watched them diving in the sea for sea urchins or other easy prey .
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We were barely moving through the water, an easy prey .
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The dams also render the animals easy prey for hunters and trap them when the water is drained for irrigation.
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Three groups are easy prey to the underclass's recruiting sergeant.
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It is easy prey - I've caught them myself.
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As a result, his party may look battered, easy prey for the Democrats.
■ VERB
catch
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One other interesting example of feeding technology is the use of bait to catch prey .
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Snakes sometimes caught their prey here by dropping from above.
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All poisonous amphibia use their toxins as a means of self-defence and not to catch prey .
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The carnivorous digestive system would be useless without the means of catching prey .
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Foxes and other hunting animals need to know how far to pounce to catch their prey .
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By catching your prey off guard, you are in control of the situation, at least initially.
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They can also catch kinds of prey that they could not catch by themselves, such as buffalo.
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The king crabs have a nearly circular carapace, beneath which powerful legs helped the animal to swim and catch prey .
hunt
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The truth is that real man-eaters, those tigers that deliberately and consistently hunt human prey , are extremely rare.
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Cu Sith usually moved in complete silence, though would bark loudly three times when hunting his prey .
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The hedgerows and pasture where the owls hunt their prey are disappearing as farmers create bigger fields for intensive arable farming.
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A pride of lions hunting down a prey animal, such as a zebra, is one of nature's more awesome spectacles.
kill
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Males are usually most involved in attacking predators and may collaborate to kill snakes as dangerous prey .
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The octopus has a poison glad that it uses for killing its prey .
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Because of the risk of injury and the need to kill prey quickly, predators usually predate animals smaller than themselves.
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These two lizards use their venom to kill their prey , which comprises small mammals such as mice and birds.
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Some animals, such as venomous snakes and spiders, inject venoms in order to immobilise and kill their prey .
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The octopus kills its prey , mainly small crabs, by biting them and injecting highly toxic saliva into the wound.
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Snake venoms have different effects, some simply weakening or disorienting, others paralysing or killing the prey .
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
fall victim/prey to sth/sb
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A number of woodcutters and honey-hunters have fallen victim to Sunderbans tigers.
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All these animals, and others, had fallen prey to the apprentice hunters.
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But he suddenly fell victim to his own pride and courage.
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Even Jim Harrick fell victim to the mood.
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It really seems as if some drivers fall prey to a death wish when freezing fog descends.
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Surely Cynthia didn't fall victim to the same fear?
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This way, Tucson can avoid falling prey to wildcat subdivisions on its fringes.
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You have to assume that Mobs will occasionally fall prey to animosity come what may.
prey on sb's mind
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But his main preoccupation was with the unfinished Requiem, which had begun to prey on his mind .
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Important items which are left have a habit of preying on the mind .
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It began to prey on my mind so much that I went to the casualty department of Charing Cross Hospital.
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It was Tatiana preying on his mind .
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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Snakes track their prey by its scent.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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It is hardly surprising that in such environments, adolescents fall prey to peer pressure.
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Many birds of prey regurgitate pellets which contain the indigestible remains of their prey, including much of the bone.
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Men prowled the motel like packs of wolves searching out easy prey .
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Snakes sometimes caught their prey here by dropping from above.
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The toothed whales have a set of teeth which they use to grasp large and quick-moving prey , mainly squid or fish.
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These refugees fell prey to marauding gangs, even to troopers, or to one another.
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They become a prey to nameless and often unspoken fears.
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Thirdly, the species composition of the prey animals may be characteristic of particular predator types.
II. verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
on
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Obviously the night-flying insects that they prey on must find their way about somehow.
■ NOUN
mind
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Important items which are left have a habit of preying on the mind .
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It began to prey on my mind so much that I went to the casualty department of Charing Cross Hospital.
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It was Tatiana preying on his mind .
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But his main preoccupation was with the unfinished Requiem, which had begun to prey on his mind .
■ VERB
fall
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Now, once again, the thin reed of refugee protection has fallen prey to the winds of political expediency.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
prey on sb's mind
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But his main preoccupation was with the unfinished Requiem, which had begun to prey on his mind .
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Important items which are left have a habit of preying on the mind .
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It began to prey on my mind so much that I went to the casualty department of Charing Cross Hospital.
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It was Tatiana preying on his mind .
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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But his main preoccupation was with the unfinished Requiem, which had begun to prey on his mind.
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Consequently, the larger creatures that prey on them, the raptors, are fleeing starvation too.
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Ron Hunt said police have a responsibility to let parents know where those who might prey on children live.
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So, too, were the spiders that prey on them.
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You never were, although the slum people were complaining that a monster was preying on them.