predatory Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective satellite characterized by plundering or pillaging or marauding
    marauding; raiding.
    • bands of marauding Indians
    • predatory warfare
    • a raiding party
  2. adjective satellite living by preying on other animals especially by catching living prey
    raptorial; rapacious; vulturous; vulturine; ravening.
    • a predatory bird
    • the rapacious wolf
    • raptorial birds
    • ravening wolves
    • a vulturine taste for offal
  3. adjective satellite living by or given to victimizing others for personal gain
    predacious; predaceous.
    • predatory capitalists
    • a predatory, insensate society in which innocence and decency can prove fatal"- Peter S. Prescott
    • a predacious kind of animal--the early geological gangster"- W.E.Swinton

WordNet

Pred"a*to*ry adjective
Etymology
L. praedatorius, fr. praedari to plunder, fr. praeda prey. See Prey.
Definitions
  1. Characterized by plundering; practicing rapine; plundering; pillaging; as, a predatory excursion; a predatory party. "A predatory war." Macaulay.
  2. Hungry; ravenous; as, predatory spirits. Obs.
    Exercise . . . maketh the spirits more hot and predatory. Bacon.
  3. (Zoöl.) Living by preying upon other animals; carnivorous.

Webster 1913