捕食する

[Arashi]

I encountered 捕食する but I haven't been able to figure out what it means. It seems to me that 捕 means something along the lines of capturing something while 食 means "to eat". Does it mean capturing one's food? I'd appreciate help on this.

This is the context of the phrase:

人間を捕食する妖魔が巣喰う世界。妖魔に対抗すべく、人間は妖魔の血肉を受け入れた半人半妖の女性戦士を生み出した。

What I got out of these few sentences is that monsters are catching people and eating them while in order to combat these creatures, women are recieving a treatment that involves transfusing some of the monsters' blood, causing them to partially become one of these creatures but making them strong enough to fight them. (Note: this is from a comic series.)

There is more context behind this but I haven't translated it yet. I'm still not very good at translating (I'm still learning Japanese) and I lack a lot of understanding of how the language works. But if anyone can help me out with 捕食する in particular, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks!

- Arashi

 

[EddieCai]

I think you are right. 捕食する, as a verb, means prey, and literally, you can translate を to on, so 人間を捕食する妖魔 means The monsters that prey on human.

Well, 妖魔 is more than monsters, it's more like demons..

 

[Ocham]

Your guess is almost right. But 捕食する is more likely to be "prey upon."
In this context, 妖魔 prey upon 人間.

 

[Arashi]

Okay, that makes sense. Thanks!