adjective
definition
Of, or relating to a predator.
definition
Living by preying on other living animals.
definition
Exploiting or victimizing others for personal gain.
Examples of predatory in a Sentence
The predatory smile crossed his face.
His predatory smile made her pulse fly.
His predatory gaze was on her.
Five sets of predatory eyes fell to her, as if realizing there was a lame lamb in their midst.
He resigned the office of guardian, and betook himself again to a wandering life and a desultory and predatory warfare against the English.
He stood in the hallway smiling, his predatory look assuring her he had no plans of letting his dinner escape him.
Jared broke the predatory silence.
At the close of the Pindari War in 1818 the whole country that is now under the Central India agency was in great confusion and disorder, having suffered heavily from the extortions of the Mahratta armies and from predatory bands.
When the pursuit of game becomes the chief occupation of a people there is of necessity a higher development of courage, skill, powers of observation and invention; and these qualities are still further enhanced in predatory tribes who take by force the food, clothing and other property prepared or collected by a feebler people.
I think ' Gray Panthers ' sounds very predatory!
To anyone else, the predatory stare of a demon would come across as threatening.
It has even been suggested that many homes were financed beyond their true values as a result of inflated real estate appraisals conducted on behalf of predatory lenders.
Jule had zoomed it in on Xander, the look of predatory cunning – and her blood on his incisors – irritating her as much as it turned her on.
The nomad not only domesticates and turns to his own use the gentler and more powerful animals, such as sheep, cattle, horses, camels, but even turns some predatory creatures, like the dog, into a means of defending their natural prey.
The predatory Pindaris offered a formidable resistance to the British troops.
There is also in Icelandic the allied word viking (f.), a predatory voyage.
The movement triggers his predatory instincts, and he's sure to pounce on his "prey" in no time, only to find it has escaped his grasp.
If you feel a predatory lender has approached you, call a HUD-approved housing counselor at 1-888-995-HOPE (4673).
I believe FHA is attempting to stop predatory lending practices, but in the long run the organization is making it difficult for all lenders, even the honest ones.
Honest lenders far outnumber predatory lenders, but iall lenders who must follow the new rules.
In June 2005, Bank of America agreed to modify many of the troubled predatory loans from Countrywide's holdings, up to a value of $8.4 billion dollars.
You may think that's impossible, but it's considered rude and even predatory.
The younger the girl and the bigger the age gap, the more people are likely to talk, regardless of whether the man's intentions border on predatory.
Whether it is some vestigial part of primate clan and tribe definition, or early warning system of predatory approach, or mating ritual, I don't know.
They are predatory insects, meaning they eat other smaller insects such as mosquitoes and bees.
Shortly after Murray struck again as a loose ball in the D was snaffled up by the predatory left winger.
The blond man's smile was slow, predatory, his teeth sharpened into points and his dark gaze piercing.
His gaze had turned predatory again.
This predatory tribe, issuing from Nubia, was long to be- the terror DI Upper Egypt.
Swift of flight, powerfully armed, but above all endowed with extraordinary courage, they pursue their weaker cousins, making the latter disgorge their already swallowed prey, which is nimbly caught before it reaches the water; and this habit, often observed by sailors and fishermen, has made these predatory, and parasitic birds locally known as "Teasers," "Boatswains," 2 and, from a misconception of their 1 Thus written by Hoier (circa 1604) as that of a Faeroese bird (hodie Skuir) an example of which he sent to Clusius (Exotic. Auctarium, p. 367).
Under the peaceful influences of British rule, he has completely lost his ancient warlike instincts, and forgotten his predatory habits.
During the civil wars between the sons of Shah Jahan, the king of Assam renewed his predatory incursions into Bengal; upon the termination of the contest, Aurangzeb determined to avenge these repeated insults, and despatched a considerable force for the regular invasion of the Assamese territory (1660-1662).
And this is fulfilled when he obeys the commands of law and the true order; when he tends his cattle and fields, in contrast with the lawless and predatory nomad (Dahae); when he wars on all harmful and evil creatures, and on the devilworshippers; when he keeps free from pollution the pure creations of Ahuramazdauire foremost, but also earth and water; and, above all, when he practises the Good and True in thought, word and work.
It was sprung from a predatory nomad tribe (the Parnian Dahae, Scythians) which had established itself in Khorasan (Parthia), on the borders of civilization, and thence gradually annexed further districts as the political situation or the weakness of its neighbors allowed.
If the odds were too great they could always retire to their ships, put to sea, and resume their predatory operations on some other coast three hundred miles away.
From this time onwards the Welsh rebellion gradually died down, till Owen relapsed into the position from which he had started, that of a guerrilla chief maintaining a predatory warfare in the mountains.
The bearded varieties are supposed to be hardier; at any rate they defy the ravages of predatory birds more completely than the unarmed varieties, and they are preferable in countries liable to storms of wind, as less likely to have their seeds detached.
There were also fewer birds and predatory carabid beetles that feed on weed seeds in transgenic fields.
The ants return the favor by guarding the caterpillar against the many predatory insects which enjoy eating juicy young caterpillars.
Question Bearing in mind all the caveats in the previous question, what was the biggest predatory dinosaur?
America's Philo Vance had the strange gentility of Wimsey while Nero Wolf sounded more predatory.
For he shouldn't forget the predatory instinct can work both ways.
In Jameson Land, we look for musk oxen and collared lemmings and predatory long-tailed skua, snowy owl and arctic fox.
He had a penchant for painting half- length figures of malicious sexually predatory women.
The two eyeholes in the head piece have a stern, even predatory character.
In a few sinister incidents, you might be lured to a dangerous appointment by someone with a highly predatory agenda.
Bright red starfish, giant predatory worms, huge sea spiders and many other bizarre creatures are extremely sensitive to global change.
There is a population of this large predatory shark in the North Sea.
The whole atmosphere of society was one of rapine and corruption, and only on the frontier a few self-sacrificing patriots like the ban-bishop, Peter Biriszlo, the last of Matthias's veterans, and his successor the saintly Pal Tomori, archbishop of Kalocsa, showed, in their ceaseless war against the predatory Turkish bands, that the ancient Magyar valour was not yet wholly extinct.
Many, perhaps the majority, of the Crustacea are omnivorous or carrion-feeders, but many are actively predatory in their habits, and are provided with more or less complex and efficient instruments for capturing their prey, and there are also many planteaters.