victim

victim, prey, quarry denote a person or animal killed or injured for the ends of the one who kills or injures.

Victim primarily applies to a living creature, usually an animal, sometimes a person, that is killed and offered as a sacrifice to a divinity; in more general use it applies to one who has been destroyed, ruined, seriously injured, or badly treated by some ruthless person or impersonal power before which he has been helpless

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the victims of a pestilence

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spent much time in the back of the grocery, complaining of his poverty as if it were a new invention and he its first victim— Malamud

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was the girl born to be a victim; to be always disliked and crushed as if she were too fine for this world?— Conrad

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all are victims of circumstances; all have had characters warped in infancy and intelligence stunted at school— Russell

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Prey applies to animals hunted and killed for food by more powerful carnivorous animals

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the hungry family flew like vultures on their prey— Johnson

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In extended sense prey applies to a victim of something that seizes or captures or fells in a manner suggestive of the action of a predatory animal

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Hitler, having taken his plunge, and with such reckless bravado, now suddenly was prey to doubts— Shirer

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people who make solemn talk about art and are the natural prey of the artists of Punch— Montague

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Quarry is predominantly a hunting term referable to a victim of the chase, especially one taken with hounds or hawks; it may be applied to the animal as pursued as well as the animal as taken after pursuit

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the startled quarry bounds amain, as fast the gallant greyhounds strain— Scott

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In extended use quarry usually applies to a person or thing determined tipon as a victim and vigorously and relentlessly pursued

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you think . . . you are the pursuer and she the pursued. . . . Fool: it is you who are the pursued, the marked-down quarry, the destined prey— Shaw

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sometimes a man has to stalk his quarry with great caution, waiting patiently for the right moment to reveal himself— Dahl

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