variants
or predacious
as in predatory
living by killing and eating other animals
the predaceous animals of the jungle, with the tiger at the top of the food chain
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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Recent Examples of predaceous
Biological control: Parasitic wasps, predaceous beetles and birds assist in lowering sawfly populations.
—
Rita Perwich, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Apr. 2025
Look for and conserve natural enemies such as predaceous bugs, lacewings, lady beetles, and syrphids.
—The San Diego Union Tribune, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 Jan. 2025
Biden officials are offering up to 30,000 migrants per month a two-year permit to live and work in the United States under the terms of the program, and say such legal pathways are successfully steering migrants toward a safer and more orderly option than the one offered by predacious smugglers.
—Nick Miroff, Anchorage Daily News, 1 Feb. 2023
People may be aware that consumer debt collection is predaceous and corrupt; that low-income people face terrible odds in family or housing court; that anyone hoping to receive government benefits depends on the whim, and competence, of bureaucrats seeking to cut costs.
—Kathryn Joyce, The New Republic, 22 June 2020
These predaceous decisions have negatively affected the population of the last frontier and the families & communities of this great state.
—Anchorage Daily News, 6 Aug. 2022
Various species of aquatic insects, such as the predaceous diving beetle, use bubbles for breathing underwater.
—Elizabeth Gamillo, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 May 2021
Early in the season, these mites are pollen feeders, then become predaceous as more prey develops, according to 2012 research at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio.
—Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp, Indianapolis Star, 15 June 2018
Even though Coronodon is only known from a skull, that fossil reveals a mammal that mixed the features of earlier, more predaceous whales and the baleen whales that would follow.
—Brian Switek, Scientific American Blog Network, 10 July 2017
Rita Perwich, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Apr. 2025
Look for and conserve natural enemies such as predaceous bugs, lacewings, lady beetles, and syrphids.
—The San Diego Union Tribune, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 Jan. 2025
Biden officials are offering up to 30,000 migrants per month a two-year permit to live and work in the United States under the terms of the program, and say such legal pathways are successfully steering migrants toward a safer and more orderly option than the one offered by predacious smugglers.
—Nick Miroff, Anchorage Daily News, 1 Feb. 2023
People may be aware that consumer debt collection is predaceous and corrupt; that low-income people face terrible odds in family or housing court; that anyone hoping to receive government benefits depends on the whim, and competence, of bureaucrats seeking to cut costs.
—Kathryn Joyce, The New Republic, 22 June 2020
These predaceous decisions have negatively affected the population of the last frontier and the families & communities of this great state.
—Anchorage Daily News, 6 Aug. 2022
Various species of aquatic insects, such as the predaceous diving beetle, use bubbles for breathing underwater.
—Elizabeth Gamillo, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 May 2021
Early in the season, these mites are pollen feeders, then become predaceous as more prey develops, according to 2012 research at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio.
—Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp, Indianapolis Star, 15 June 2018
Even though Coronodon is only known from a skull, that fossil reveals a mammal that mixed the features of earlier, more predaceous whales and the baleen whales that would follow.
—Brian Switek, Scientific American Blog Network, 10 July 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for predaceous
Adjective
-
But the state’s highest court threw out that conviction last year, ruling that the trial judge should have never allowed women who weren’t part of the charges to testify against him and establish a pattern of predatory behavior.—
John Annese,
New York Daily News,
10 June 2025
-
While hammerhead worms are not a direct threat to humans or household pets, their predatory nature can have a lasting effect on a local ecosystem.—
Greta Cross,
USA Today,
14 June 2025
Adjective
-
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
-
Detailed testimonies of refugees along the Balkan route therefore challenge the conventional wisdom that officials tend to protect them from raptorial smugglers.—
Max Abrahms,
Foreign Affairs,
22 Mar. 2017
Cite this Entry
“Predaceous.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/predaceous. Accessed 4 Jul. 2025.
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