predatory meaning and definition

PREDATORY adjective

Definition of predatory (adjective)

1. characterized by plundering or pillaging or marauding
   • "bands of marauding Indians"; "predatory warfare"; "a raiding party"
   • synonyms: marauding, raiding
2. living by preying on other animals especially by catching living prey
   • "a predatory bird"; "the rapacious wolf"; "raptorial birds"; "ravening wolves"; "a vulturine taste for offal"
   • synonyms: rapacious, raptorial, ravening, vulturine, vulturous
3. living by or given to victimizing others for personal gain
   • "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
   • synonyms: predaceous, predacious