fall prey
Verb
Meaning
fall prey (third-person singular simple present falls prey, present participle falling prey, simple past fell prey, past participle fallen prey)
To be affected, or overcome by, a bad situation; used with to.
Synonym: fall victim
Many children at our school have fallen prey to the 'flu bug.
Inexperienced teachers sometimes fall prey to fears that they do not know enough.
Examples
Do not fall prey to the false belief that mastery and domination are synonymous with manliness.
Recently my publicist asked me for a college photo, and I realize how chubby I looked. I know this sounds totally shallow, but my advice is don't fall prey to the freshmen fifteen!
If people around the world knew how well people at Guantanamo Bay are treating prisoners, they would not fall prey to the accusations that some in our Chamber are making. They are all receiving judicial review.
Quacks are a part of our culture, and we all fall prey to them. Who among us can say, for sure, that even our own personal physicians are honest and competent?
To fasten on the facts while forgetting the social content is to fall prey to a mystifying immediacy. In an antagonistic society, appearance and essence, immediacy and mediacy, diverge; things are not what they seem to be.
In any area of our lives where we fail to act from integrity or violate our own understanding of what is right or wrong for us, we fall prey to putting the outside world's needs before our own. We then disconnect from the enormity of our power and our ability to create what we want.