Meaning & use
bottom feeder
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Meanings
nouncountablebiology
a fish or other water animal that feeds on the bottom of a sea, lake, or river
Grammar: Countable: one bottom feeder, two bottom feeders; often used in the plural for a group.
Patterns
- a bottom feeder in something
- bottom feeders feed on something
Catfish are bottom feeders, so they spend most of their time near the mud.
The lake is full of bottom feeders that eat whatever falls to the floor.
Scientists studied how bottom feeders affect the health of the river.
nouncountabledisapprovinginformal
a person or company that makes money from other people's weakness or bad luck
Grammar: Countable and countable in the plural; usually disapproving when applied to people.
Patterns
- a bottom feeder in something
- a bottom feeder who does something
Some call debt collectors bottom feeders because they profit from people in trouble.
He said the lawyers chasing the case were bottom feeders looking for easy money.
The article described the company as a bottom feeder in the housing market.
Word forms
| plural | bottom feeders |
|---|
Common combinations
- bottom feeders feed on
- Bottom feeders feed on dead plants and small animals.
- a bottom feeder in the market
- Critics called the firm a bottom feeder in the market.
- behave like a bottom feeder
- He behaves like a bottom feeder, always taking advantage of others.
- bottom-feeding fish
- Bottom-feeding fish keep the tank clean.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- bottom-feeding adjective
- describing fish or people that feed at the bottom or live off others
Commonly confused: bottom feeder or bottom line?
bottom feeder vs bottom line
Bottom line means the final profit or the most important point; bottom feeder is a creature or a disapproving word for a person.
Practice
The reporter called the payday lenders 'bottom feeders' because they ______.
Choose one answer.
The disapproving sense of bottom feeder describes people or companies that profit from others' weakness, so lending to people who cannot repay fits. The ocean option describes the biology sense, which does not fit a report about lenders.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “bottom feeder”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.