prey on

present singular third person preys on · participle present preying on · participle past preyed on · past preyed on

1. transitiveTo eat (as prey).

   Owls prey on small mammals, such as mice.

2. figurativelytransitiveTo exploit or victimize.

   Bradford had preyed on Villa's inability to defend set pieces, corners in particular, in their first-leg win and took advantage of the weakness again as Hanson equalised to restore their two-goal aggregate lead.

   2013 January 22, Phil McNulty, “Aston Villa 2-1 Bradford (3-4)”, in BBC

   1 more example

   The food industry and its allies in the agricultural and chemical industries prey on the vulnerable by pumping out barely regulated products at low cost and then marketing them with insidious advertising campaigns.

   2018, Kristin Lawless, Formerly known as food, →ISBN, page 202

3. figurativelytransitiveTo weigh heavily upon (a person's mind).

   He had met with a great trouble, and also he had allowed this story to prey on his imagination, and he was a very imaginative man.

   1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   The past—to me, the dreadful past !—is one eternal present ; and the Promethean vulture of remorse preys on me now, and for ever.

   1852, George Payne Rainsford James, “Remorse”, in A Book of the Passions, Henry G. Bohn, page 2

   Questions of power preyed on his mind. While the overheated citizenry was eating these many varieties of lotus, who knew what the city’s rulers were getting away with—not the Giulianis and Safirs, […] but the high ones who were always there, forever feeding their insatiable desires, seeking out newness, devouring beauty, and always, always wanting more?

   2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 7