| 释义 |
predacious, a.|prɪˈdeɪʃəs|
Also erron. predaceous.
[f. L. type *prædāx, -ācem (cf. It. predace: f. L. prædārī to prey upon) + -ous: cf. audacious, voracious, ferocious: see -acious.]
1. Of animals: Naturally preying upon other animals; subsisting by the capture of living prey; predatory, raptorial. Also, used of parasitic fungi which actually kill their hosts. Also transf.
1713Derham Phys.-Theol. ix. i. (1727) 399 Those are endow'd with Poison, because they are predaceous. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. IV. 22 These snails may be regarded as the predacious tribe among their fellows. 1789Mrs. Piozzi Journ. France II. 195 One predaceous creature caught in the very act of gorging his prey. 1836W. Irving Astoria (1849) 383 They are now in a land of danger, subject to the wide roamings of a predacious tribe. 1877Coues Fur Anim. iii. 60 Strictly carnivorous, predacious, and destructive to many kinds of small Mammals and Birds. 1908C. Eliot Turkey in Europe (ed. 2) iii. 73 The Turks never outgrow their ancestral character of predacious nomads. 1933Jrnl. Washington Acad. Sci. XXIII. 140 Adhesion on hyphal tips..appears to be effective in the somewhat more feebly predacious activity of a fungus bearing solitary spores. 1936Mycologia XXVIII. 307 (heading) A new predaceous fungus. 1946Ecology XXVII. 257/1 The Chelonethida are of interest as predacious arachnids. 1964R. M. & J. W. Fox Introd. Compar. Entomol. xiii. 372 Some predaceous species help to control other arthropods. 1971R. C. W. Berkeley in Hawker & Linton Micro-Organisms xii. 512 The activities of the predacious fungi have been much investigated in the hope that they could provide an effective means of controlling root parasitic eelworms.
2. Of or pertaining to predatory animals.
1822–34Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) IV. 509 He is as trouble⁓some by his sudden and predacious sallies. 1844Stephens Bk. Farm I. 363 A barrier against the predacious attempts on the stock. 1877Coues Fur Anim. iv. 128 The instincts and predacious habits of the Weasels and Stoats.
Hence preˈdaciousness = next.
1904Branford Ideals Sc. & Faith 118 Characterised by, on the one hand, audacity and predaciousness, and on the other by timidity and submission. |