How to Use be/fall prey to in a Sentence

be/fall prey to

idiom
  • But the United States must not fall prey to this temptation.
    Nicholas Eberstadt, Foreign Affairs, 8 May 2024
  • But the apes might still fall prey to human society's old flaws.
    EW.com, 2 Nov. 2023
  • Christos Kalogirou did not want to fall prey to that statistic.
    Jon Stojan, USA TODAY, 20 June 2023
  • But few things are more boring than lists which fall prey to this timing gimmick.
    Nicholas Bell, SPIN, 14 Dec. 2022
  • Because of the nature of the scam, teens who fall prey to it often go through this terrifying ordeal alone.
    Chris Moody, Washington Post, 2 Oct. 2023
  • But the families are also worried about the children’s health and afraid that some could fall prey to trafficking.
    David L. Stern, Washington Post, 3 Sep. 2023
  • Employees who are aware and engaged will be less likely to fall prey to attacks and more likely to take the right steps if a breach does occur.
    Dror Liwer, Forbes, 14 Feb. 2023
  • Other times, farmers set out poisons to keep animals away and elephants fall prey to their trap.
    Sofia Quaglia, Discover Magazine, 30 Oct. 2023
  • If this trend continues, the U.S. risks allowing its neighbors to fall prey to our peer competitors.
    Aron Solomon, Newsweek, 9 July 2024
  • Hope is an essential ingredient, but don’t fall prey to it.
    Jonathan Martin, Rolling Stone, 24 Feb. 2023
  • The geneticists also want to engineer a mammoth with no tusks, so the animals don’t fall prey to poachers.
    Katie Hunt, CNN, 9 Mar. 2024
  • Cruise vacations can easily fall prey to flight disruptions or storms that can snarl plans.
    Mark Ellwood, Condé Nast Traveler, 28 Nov. 2022
  • What is guaranteed is that Mississippi won’t be the last state where people fall prey to the fast-emerging threat of C. auris and other fungal pathogens.
    Henry Skinner, STAT, 9 Feb. 2023
  • At the other end of the spectrum, Myers said, people are more vulnerable to fall prey to extremist groups now more than ever.
    Sade Ajishegiri, Nic Napier, Max Reich and Isabella Vesperini, The Indianapolis Star, 11 Sep. 2024
  • Younger people, spending a lot of time online, are actually more likely to fall prey to a scammer than baby boomers are.
    Whizy Kim, Vox, 4 Sep. 2024
  • Potassium helps promote vigorous growth and hardiness, so a deficit may result in wimpy fruit or spindly plants that fall prey to pests and diseases.
    Arricca Elin Sansone, Country Living, 10 May 2023
  • If a rug is left in water too long or neglected in general, even the best indoor/outdoor rugs can fall prey to dirt and moisture and develop mildew.
    Belle Duchene, Better Homes & Gardens, 30 May 2023
  • But even when parents are vigilant, that’s still no guarantee their children won’t fall prey to social media’s traps.
    Eli Joseph, Fortune, 4 June 2024
  • Journalists fall prey to this phenomenon as much as anyone else.
    Sam Jacobs, TIME, 2 May 2024
  • Regrettably, those who fall prey to these Facebook scams frequently feel neglected by Meta.
    Kurt Knutsson, Fox News, 22 Oct. 2023
  • The governor warned Democrats not to fall prey to cynicism or negativity.
    Andrew Sheeler, Sacramento Bee, 9 July 2024
  • Every few months a couple of adjacent small mom-and-pop stores or fame houses fall prey to the bulldozer and a little more of the funkiness that makes Old East Dallas special gives way to big and boxy dullness.
    Dallas News, 8 Nov. 2022
  • To avoid being part of these growing statistics, keep your guard up, because even the most financially savvy can fall prey to tactics employed by these criminals.
    Jill Schlesinger, The Mercury News, 11 Mar. 2024
  • Taxation, that's sometimes fair and often on the rich but compulsory, can be prey to rival taxmen and lead to beatings and imprisonment for non-payment.
    Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, 14 Apr. 2021
  • However, many struggling entrepreneurs often fall prey to common mindset mistakes that can hinder their progress.
    Dr. Rick Ruperto, Forbes, 13 Nov. 2023
  • Thousands of Americans fall prey to Mexican cartel timeshare scams.
    Nicole Fallert, USA TODAY, 22 Feb. 2024
  • Newcomers to Austin fall prey to this nostalgia almost instantly—and, with a longtime resident like me, the symptoms can become comically acute.
    Lawrence Wright, The New Yorker, 6 Feb. 2023
  • Van Noten didn’t fall prey to fashion’s insatiable appetites that have designers creating dozens of collections a year and mounting extravaganzas around the world.
    Robin Givhan, Washington Post, 19 Mar. 2024
  • Not only did ChatGPT fail to include a warning about this drastic vulnerability, its example code could also lead a programmer to fall prey to it.
    Jaideep Vaidya, IEEE Spectrum, 11 June 2023
  • All too often, people fall prey to a cognitive phenomenon that behavioral economist Richard Thaler has spoken eloquently about, Duke said.
    Jena McGregor, Forbes, 11 Jan. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'be/fall prey to.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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