| 释义 |
predatory, a.|ˈprɛdətərɪ|
Also 7–8 præ-.
[ad. L. prædātōri-us, f. prædātōr-em a plunderer, agent-n. f. prædārī: see prede v. and -ory2.]
1. Of, pertaining to, characterized by, or consisting in plundering, pillaging, or robbery.
1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. xviii. (Arb.) 53 So saith Aristotle,..that pasturage was before tillage, or fishing or fowling, or any other predatory art or cheuisance. 1673Marvell Reh. Transp. II. 30 It is a prædatory course of life. 1788Gibbon Decl. & F. lxiv. (1869) III. 611 Necessity and revenge might justify his prædatory excursions by sea and land. 1803Wellington in Gurw. Desp. (1837) II. 203 The Marhattas have long boasted that they would carry on a predatory war against us. 1878Maclear Celts i. 9 They for a time indulged their predatory instincts unchecked.
2. Addicted to, or living by, plunder; plundering, marauding, thieving; in modern use sometimes applied to the criminal classes of great cities.
1781Gibbon Decl. & F. xxvi. (1869) II. 35 He recalled to their standard his predatory detachments. 1801Wellington in Gurw. Desp. (1837) I. 367 A predatory and formidable race, the Mahrattas. 1841Macaulay Ess., W. Hastings (1887) 638 The principle..is fully expressed by the old motto of one of the great predatory families of Teviotdale, ‘Thou shalt want ere I want’.
†3. Destructive, consuming, wasteful, deleterious. Obs.
1626Bacon Sylva §299 The Evils that come of Exercise, are:..that it maketh the Spirits more hot and predatory. Ibid. §318 The cause is, for that all exclusion of open air (which is ever predatory) maintaineth the body in his first freshness and moisture. 1686Plot Staffordsh. 32 Some sorts of it [air] being as predatory and wastful of the body, as others again are comfortable and refreshing. a1711Ken Hymnotheo Poet. Wks. 1721 III. 122 If of himself the Patient takes no Care, But runs into the Predatory Air.
4. Of an animal: That preys upon other animals; that is a beast, bird, or other creature of prey; carnivorous. Also, of its organs of capture.
1668Wilkins Real Char. 165, I shall be content to suppose that those Animals which are now Prædatory were so from the beginning. 1861G. F. Berkeley Sportsm. W. Prairies xi. 185 They will fly from a dog or a predatory animal. 1884Sedgwick Claus' Text-bk. Zool. i. 562 The lower lip [of Libellulidæ] is modified to form a special predatory apparatus (the mask). a1908Mod. The Cicindela is one of the Geadephaga or predatory land beetles. 1925Jrnl. Mammalogy VI. 29 The larger predatory mammals..require for proper sustenance animal food in large quantities. 1970R. A. & B. M. Maier Compar. Animal Behavior vii. 116 Defenses against predators are necessarily less than completely effective; otherwise, predatory animals could not survive.
Hence predatorily |ˈprɛdətərɪlɪ| adv., in a predatory manner (Webster 1847); ˈpredatoriness, the quality of being predatory.
1890Cent. Dict., Predatoriness. 1963Times 7 Mar. 13/2 The techniques of power, of political manipulation, of the predatoriness of officialdom, become even more insidiously efficient. 1979Listener 30 Aug. 284/2 Poverty..makes public predatoriness irresistibly attractive. |