English Explanatory Dictionary

escape

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To get free; to free oneself.
  2. To avoid (any unpleasant person or thing); to elude, get away from.
  3. To avoid capture; to get away with something, avoid punishment.
  4. To elude the observation or notice of; to not be seen or remembered by.
  5. To cause (a single character, or all such characters in a string) to be interpreted literally, instead of with any special meaning it would usually have in the same context, often by prefixing with another character.
  6. To halt a program or command by pressing a key (such as the "Esc" key) or combination of keys.
noun
  1. The act of leaving a dangerous or unpleasant situation.
  2. Leakage or outflow, as of steam or a liquid, or an electric current through defective insulation.
  3. Something that has escaped; an escapee.
  4. A holiday, viewed as time away from the vicissitudes of life.
  5. escape key
  6. The text character represented by 27 (decimal) or 1B (hexadecimal).
  7. A successful shot from a snooker position.
  8. A defective product that is allowed to leave a manufacturing facility.
  9. That which escapes attention or restraint; a mistake, oversight, or transgression.
  10. A sally.
  11. An apophyge.
  12. A cultivated plant found growing as though wild, dispersed by some agency.

Pronunciation

/ɪˈskeɪp/ /ɪk-/ /ə-/ /ɛ-/ /ɛk-/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-escape.wav En-us-escape.ogg

Word forms

escape escapes escaping escaped

Etymology

From Middle English escapen, from Anglo-Norman and Old Northern French escaper ( = Old French eschaper, modern French échapper), from Vulgar Latin *excappāre (“to escape a garment, get out of one's clothing”, literally “to free oneself from one's cape”), from Latin ex- (“out”) + Late Latin cappa (“cape, cloak”). Cognate with escapade. Also doublet of scape.

Synonyms

break loose take it on the lam

Derived words

escapable escape artist escape artistry escape character escape clause escape cock escapee escape fire escape goat escape hatch escape key escapeland escapeless escape literature escape mechanism escapement escape pipe escape pod escaper escape rhythm escape road escape room escape route escape routine escape sequence escape shaft escape tone escape valve escape velocity escapeway escape wheel escapingly escapism escapist escapologist escapology fire-escape knot inescapable garden escape pump escape

Translations

Albanian: shmangem Armenian: խուսափել Aromanian: scap Aromanian: ascap Assamese: সাৰ Bulgarian: избягвам Catalan: eludir Catalan: escapar Cherokee: ᎠᎵᏘᎠ Chinese Mandarin: 逃逸 Dutch: ontsnappen aan Dutch: ontgaan Finnish: välttää Finnish: paeta Finnish: livistää Finnish: livetä French: éviter Galician: deludir Galician: evanecer Galician: baratar Galician: escudir German: entgehen German: ausweichen Greek: διαφεύγω Greek: γλιτώνω Ancient Greek: φεύγω Ingrian: välttää Italian: evitare Italian: eludere Italian: svicolare Italian: sgattaiolare Kabuverdianu: futi Kabuverdianu: fuji Northern Kurdish: filitîn Latin: defugio Khiamniungan Naga: thǖkhū Norwegian: unngå Occitan: eludir Old English: ætberstan Polish: unikać Polish: uniknąć Portuguese: evitar Romanian: scăpa Russian: избега́ть Russian: избежа́ть Russian: отде́лываться Russian: отде́латься Slovak: vyhnúť sa Slovene: ubežati Spanish: escapar Spanish: eludir Swahili: kwepa Swedish: undfly Swedish: fly Swedish: undgå Thai: หลบหลีก Turkish: kaçmak Ukrainian: уника́ти Ukrainian: уни́кнути Ukrainian: омина́ти Ukrainian: омину́ти
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