predator
nounUS /ˈpɹɛd.ə.tɚ/ · UK /ˈpɹɛd.ə.tə/
Etymology Borrowed from Latin praedātor, from praedor (“loot, pillage”), from praeda (“booty, spoils, prey”).
1
Any animal or other organism that hunts and kills other nonplant organisms (their prey), primarily for food.
- Hives should be positioned, oriented and protected to avoid predators and ensure survival in the meliponary. A study (pers. obs.) of predators shows that the main culprits in a Malaysian meliponary are frogs and lizards.2018 October 15, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, The pollination of cultivated plants: A compendium for practitioners: Volume 2, Food & Agriculture Org., →ISBN, page 73:
- So if you're the only thing worth eating in the middle of the ocean, the predator that grabs you will probably have gotten there by a Levy walk.2023, Robert M. Sapolsky, Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will, New York: Penguin, →ISBN:
2
Someone who attacks and plunders for gain.
3
A sexual predator.
- Derived terms
- ambush predator, anti-predator, apex predator, cyberpredator, hyperpredator, interpredator, kleptopredator, macropredator, micropredator, nonpredator, predator bug, predatorial, predatorious, predatorism, predatorlike, predator satiation, predator saturation, Predditor, predophile, sexual predator, sit-and-wait predator, superpredator