Prey vs Sacrifice - What's the difference?
prey | sacrifice |
(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
That which is or may be seized by animals or birds to be devoured; hence, a person given up as a victim.
* Dryden
* Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
A living thing that is eaten by another living thing.
* Bible, Job iv. ii
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author=
, title= The act of devouring other creatures; ravage.
* Shakespeare
The victim of a disease.
To offer (something) as a gift to a deity.
To give away (something valuable) to get at least a possibility to gain something else of value (such as self-respect, trust, love, freedom, prosperity), or to avoid an even greater loss.
* “Don’t you break my heart / ’Cause I sacrifice to make you happy.” - From the song Baby Don’t You Do It by Marvin Gaye
* “God sacrificed His only-begotten Son, so that all people might have eternal life.” (a paraphrase of John 3:16).
* Prior
* G. Eliot
To trade (a value of higher worth) for one of lesser worth in order to gain something else valued more such as an ally or business relationship or to avoid an even greater loss; to sell without profit to gain something other than money.
* (Ayn Rand), Atlas Shrugged
(chess) To intentionally give up (a piece) in order to improve one’s position on the board.
(baseball) To advance (a runner on base) by batting the ball so it can be caught or fielded, placing the batter out, but with insufficient time to put the runner out.
To sell at a price less than the cost or actual value.
To destroy; to kill.
The offering of anything to a god; consecratory rite.
* Milton
Destruction or surrender of anything for the sake of something else; devotion of some desirable object in behalf of a higher object, or to a claim deemed more pressing.
Something sacrificed.
* Milton
(baseball) A play in which the batter is intentionally out in order that runners can advance around the bases.
A loss of profit.
(slang, dated) A sale at a price less than the cost or the actual value.
As nouns the difference between prey and sacrifice
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 sacrifice is the offering of anything to a god; consecratory rite.As a verb sacrifice is
to offer (something) as a gift to a deity.prey
English
Noun
- And they brought the captives, and the prey , and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest.
- Already sees herself the monster's prey .
- [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
- The old lion perisheth for lack of prey .
William E. Conner
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.}}
- Hog in sloth, fox in stealth, lion in prey .
References
*Anagrams
*sacrifice
English
(wikipedia sacrifice)Verb
(sacrific)- Condemned to sacrifice his childish years / To babbling ignorance, and to empty fears.
- The Baronet had sacrificed a large sum making this boy his heir.
- If you exchange a penny for a dollar, it is not a sacrifice ; if you exchange a dollar for a penny, it is.
- (Johnson)
Synonyms
* (sell without profit) sell at a lossDerived terms
* sacrificialNoun
(en noun)- Great pomp, and sacrifice , and praises loud, / To Dagon.
- the sacrifice of one's spare time in order to volunteer
- Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood / Of human sacrifice .