2
general::
prey on sb
to hurt or deceive a group of people, especially people who are weak or can easily be hurt or deceived
• He would attack at night, preying on lone women in their twenties or thirties.
• It's particularly contemptible that these sort of people prey on the elderly., prey on sth
If an animal preys on another animal, it catches and eats it
• The spider preys on small flies and other insects.
Cambridge-Phrasal Verbs
3
general::
noun ADJ. easy Teenagers are easy prey for unscrupulous drug dealers. | ideal VERB + PREY chase, hunt for, look for, pursue, stalk | capture, pounce on a cat pouncing on its prey | kill PREP. ~ for The young deer are ideal prey for the leopard. | ~ to (figurative) She was prey to all kinds of conflicting emotions. PHRASES a beast/bird of prey, be/fall prey to sth (figurative) The new government has fallen prey to corruption and fraud.
Oxford Collocations Dictionary