depredator


Also found in: Thesaurus.

dep·re·date

 (dĕp′rĭ-dāt′)
v. dep·re·dat·ed, dep·re·dat·ing, dep·re·dates
v.tr.
To ransack; plunder.
v.intr.
To engage in plundering.

[Late Latin dēpraedārī, dēpraedāt- : Latin dē-, de- + Latin praedārī, to plunder (from praeda, booty; see ghend- in Indo-European roots).]

dep′re·da′tor n.
de·pred′a·to′ry (dĭ-prĕd′ə-tôr′ē, dĕp′rĭ-də-) adj.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
References in classic literature ?
Seeing the boy scudding away at such a rapid pace, he very naturally concluded him to be the depredator; and shouting 'Stop thief!' with all his might, made off after him, book in hand.
Such were the palpable advantages of this winter encampment; added to which, it was secure from the prowlings and plunderings of any petty band of roving Blackfeet, the difficulties of retreat rendering it unwise for those crafty depredators to venture an attack unless with an overpowering force.
The nobles themselves, each fortified within his own castle, and playing the petty sovereign over his own dominions, were the leaders of bands scarce less lawless and oppressive than those of the avowed depredators. To maintain these retainers, and to support the extravagance and magnificence which their pride induced them to affect, the nobility borrowed sums of money from the Jews at the most usurious interest, which gnawed into their estates like consuming cankers, scarce to be cured unless when circumstances gave them an opportunity of getting free, by exercising upon their creditors some act of unprincipled violence.
“Let a complaint be made, by all means,” said the Judge; “I am determined to see the law executed to the letter, on all such depredators.”
Imam Khomeini has described it as the depredator of peoples.
8:20) The main idea is that the entire cosmos is affected by the vanity of humanity from the time of Adam because of sin, depending on the situation and destiny of humankind, the main depredator of the planet.