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Prey vs Buccaneer - What's the difference?

prey | buccaneer |

As nouns the difference between prey and buccaneer

is that prey is (archaic) anything, as goods, etc, taken or got by violence; anything taken by force from an enemy in war; spoil; booty; plunder while buccaneer is (nautical) any of a group of seamen who cruised on their own account on the spanish main and in the pacific in the 17th century; similar to pirates but did not prey on ships of their own nation.

As verbs the difference between prey and buccaneer

is that prey is to victimize, hunt, attack or plunder while buccaneer is to engage in piracy against any but one's own nation's ships.

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.

    • Related terms

    * prey on

    References

    *

    Anagrams

    *

    buccaneer

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (nautical) Any of a group of seamen who cruised on their own account on the Spanish Main and in the Pacific in the 17th century; similar to pirates but did not prey on ships of their own nation.
  • A pirate.

    • Synonyms

    * privateer * pirate

    Derived terms

    * buccaneering * buccaneerish

    See also

    * Jolly Roger * skull and crossbones

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To engage in piracy against any but one's own nation's ships.
  • * 1963 , John Day, Arthur Henry Bullen (editor), The Works of John Day , page v
    • In 1596 and 1597 he bucaneered against Sao Thomi, the Portuguese slaving settlement off the coast of West Africa, and in the Spanish Main