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Prey vs Beseech - What's the difference?

prey | beseech | Related terms |

In archaic terms the difference between prey and beseech

is that prey is anything, as goods, etc., taken or got by violence; anything taken by force from an enemy in war; spoil; booty; plunder while beseech is a request.

As a verb beseech is

to beg or implore.

prey

English

Noun

  • (archaic) Anything, as goods, etc., taken or got by violence; anything taken by force from an enemy in war; spoil; booty; plunder.
  • * Bible, Numbers xxxi. 12
  • And they brought the captives, and the prey , and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest.
  • That which is or may be seized by animals or birds to be devoured; hence, a person given up as a victim.
  • * Dryden
  • Already sees herself the monster's prey .
  • * Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
  • [The helmsman] steered with no end of a swagger while you were by; but if he lost sight of you, he became instantly the prey of an abject funk
  • A living thing that is eaten by another living thing.
  • * Bible, Job iv. ii
  • The old lion perisheth for lack of prey .
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= William E. Conner
  • , title= An Acoustic Arms Race , volume=101, issue=3, page=206-7, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Nonetheless, some insect prey take advantage of clutter by hiding in it. Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.}}
  • The act of devouring other creatures; ravage.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Hog in sloth, fox in stealth, lion in prey .
  • The victim of a disease.
  • References

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    Anagrams

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    beseech

    English

    Alternative forms

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    Verb

  • To beg or implore.
  • * 1748 , David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral , London, Oxford University Press, 1973, § 25:
  • after what manner, I beseech you, must the mind proceed in this operation?
  • * 1888 , Rudyard Kipling, ‘Watches of the Night’, Plain Tales from the Hills , Folio 2005, p. 61:
  • She besought him, for his Soul's sake to speak the truth.
  • * 1919 ,
  • Panting a little in his haste, he told her how miserable he was; he besought her to have mercy on him; he promised, if she would forgive him, to do everything she wanted.

    Noun

    (beseeches)
  • (archaic) A request.
  • * 1839 , Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, George Darley, The works of Beaumont and Fletcher: Volume 1 :
  • Good madam, hear the suit that Edith urges, With such submiss beseeches ; [...]