as in rapacious
living by killing and eating other animals
hawks are predatory and pose a danger to rabbits and other pets
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Recent Examples of predatory
The extensive burrow systems created by groundhogs are designed to serve as protection from predatory enemies.
—
Kate Perez, USA Today, 1 Feb. 2026
It’s also produced a challenging landscape of predatory contracts and other potential pitfalls.
—Eric Prisbell, Dallas Morning News, 27 Jan. 2026
Stephanie has vilified predatory slot-machine operators and is opposed to prop bets, which provide opportunities to bet on an individual play or a player statistic.
—Jasper Craven, Harpers Magazine, 27 Jan. 2026
To this very day, Europe, home to the third-largest economy in the world (albeit very nearly the size of China’s), depends on the United States to protect it against a predatory Russia, which has a GDP the size of Italy’s.
—Eliot A. Cohen, The Atlantic, 23 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for predatory
Kate Perez, USA Today, 1 Feb. 2026
It’s also produced a challenging landscape of predatory contracts and other potential pitfalls.
—Eric Prisbell, Dallas Morning News, 27 Jan. 2026
Stephanie has vilified predatory slot-machine operators and is opposed to prop bets, which provide opportunities to bet on an individual play or a player statistic.
—Jasper Craven, Harpers Magazine, 27 Jan. 2026
To this very day, Europe, home to the third-largest economy in the world (albeit very nearly the size of China’s), depends on the United States to protect it against a predatory Russia, which has a GDP the size of Italy’s.
—Eliot A. Cohen, The Atlantic, 23 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for predatory
Recent Examples of Synonyms for predatory
Adjective
-
Carville’s theory was and remains controversial—his critics point to the lasting damage Trump has inflicted everywhere since his rapacious return to office while the Democrats have looked on haplessly.—
Mark Leibovich,
The Atlantic,
11 Feb. 2026
-
By contrast, his second term looks rapacious.—
David D. Kirkpatrick,
New Yorker,
31 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
In the meantime, an unstable government could become more rather than less aggressive, not least to keep younger hard-liners from rebelling.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
10 Feb. 2026
-
Wiener helped push two new California laws last year — the No Secret Police Act and the No Vigilantes Act — in the wake of intense and aggressive immigration enforcement by masked ICE and other federal agents in California and around the country.—
Kevin Rector,
Los Angeles Times,
10 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
These food-crops also benefit from the work performed by predaceous insects that control populations of crop-eating invertebrates.—
Bruce Beehler,
Baltimore Sun,
17 Aug. 2025
-
Biological control: Parasitic wasps, predaceous beetles and birds assist in lowering sawfly populations.—
Rita Perwich,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
5 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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Villegas pushed for the original measure after dangerous speeding and red-light running by raptorial tow drivers ended in a nearly catastrophic crash in his ward that saw a bus that had been hit by a tow truck plow through a storefront.—
Jake Sheridan,
Chicago Tribune,
8 Apr. 2025
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Damsel bugs are slender and tan-colored and have slightly raptorial front legs.—
Rita Perwich,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
1 July 2023
Adjective
-
Administration public health officials often cite the need to restore trust in public health systems after the coronavirus pandemic, when vaccine policy and the general public health response to the deadly pandemic became a highly polarizing topic in American politics.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
9 Feb. 2026
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The Metropolitan Police Department made another arrest in connection with a deadly 2023 shooting outside a Northeast Washington nightclub that killed former Morgan State University basketball player Blake Bozeman and injured three others.—
7News WJLA,
Baltimore Sun,
9 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
The press was ferocious and organised, with the number of box entries and chances created being higher than any league performance this season.—
Megan Feringa,
New York Times,
30 Jan. 2026
-
What Lee did not anticipate was the iron resolve, the ferocious tenacity, of the Union defenders.—
Jamelle Bouie,
Mercury News,
29 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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Jamian Juliano-Villani—whose civilian alter ego is that of a thirty-nine-year-old wild-child blue-chip airbrush artist of freaky, funny, referential mashups (Elvis, SpaghettiOs, Kissinger), and whose paintings are in the collections of the Whitney and the Guggenheim—has a solid one.—
Emma Allen,
New Yorker,
9 Feb. 2026
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And from that fire has emerged a versatile forward with wild upside on both ends of the floor, an unlikely candidate to play a steady role on a veteran team with deep playoff aspirations.—
Kristian Winfield,
New York Daily News,
9 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
On his second, Dominique pulled off a savage windmill, the same dunk that had earned a perfect score the year before and won him the title.—
Kevin Sherrington
Feb. 10,
Dallas Morning News,
10 Feb. 2026
-
Meantime, outflows both from both software and crypto (an asset class most correlated with unprofitable tech stocks) grew excessive until the savage software/bitcoin selloff hit an extreme Thursday, when money came sloshing in to catch the falling knives.—
Michael Santoli,
CNBC,
9 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Predatory.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/predatory. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
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