escape

[ih-skeyp] /ɪˈskeɪp/
verb (used without object), escaped, escaping.
1.
to slip or get away, as from confinement or restraint; gain or regain liberty:
to escape from jail.
Synonyms: flee, abscond, decamp.
2.
to slip away from pursuit or peril; avoid capture, punishment, or any threatened evil.
3.
to issue from a confining enclosure, as a fluid.
4.
to slip away; fade:
The words escaped from memory.
5.
Botany. (of an originally cultivated plant) to grow wild.
6.
(of a rocket, molecule, etc.) to achieve escape velocity.
verb (used with object), escaped, escaping.
7.
to slip away from or elude (pursuers, captors, etc.):
He escaped the police.
Synonyms: dodge, flee, avoid.
8.
to succeed in avoiding (any threatened or possible danger or evil):
She escaped capture.
9.
to elude (one's memory, notice, search, etc.).
10.
to fail to be noticed or recollected by (a person):
Her reply escapes me.
11.
(of a sound or utterance) to slip from or be expressed by (a person, one's lips, etc.) inadvertently.
noun
12.
an act or instance of escaping.
Synonyms: flight.
13.
the fact of having escaped.
14.
a means of escaping:
We used the tunnel as an escape.
15.
avoidance of reality:
She reads mystery stories as an escape.
16.
leakage, as of water or gas, from a pipe or storage container.
17.
Botany. a plant that originated in cultivated stock and is now growing wild.
18.
Physics, Rocketry. the act of achieving escape velocity.
19.
(usually initial capital letter) Computers. Escape key.
adjective
20.
for or providing an escape:
an escape route.
Origin
1250-1300; Middle English escapen, ascapen < Old North French escaper (French échapper) < Vulgar Latin *excappāre, verbal derivative (with ex- ex-1) of Late Latin cappa hooded cloak (see cap1)
Related forms
escapable, adjective
escapeless, adjective
escaper, noun
escapingly, adverb
preescape, noun, verb (used without object), preescaped, preescaping.
self-escape, noun
unescapable, adjective
unescapably, adverb
unescaped, adjective
Synonym Study
7. Escape, elude, evade mean to keep free of something. To escape is to succeed in keeping away from danger, pursuit, observation, etc.: to escape punishment. To elude implies baffling pursuers or slipping through an apparently tight net: The fox eluded the hounds. To evade is to turn aside from or go out of reach of a person or thing: to evade the police. See also avoid.
Examples from the web for escape
  • Almost simultaneously, two speed boats were observed breaking off to escape.
  • But it also means that college doesn't provide the usual escape from the realities of the job market.
  • Even a wholly technocratic government can never fully escape politics.
  • The vessel remained intact, but some radiation did escape from the plant into the surrounding environment.
  • The cheetah is perfectly honed to hunt gazelles-but the gazelle is equally well equipped to escape cheetahs.
  • To escape predators in the ocean, these cephalopods will speed away by shooting a jet of water.
  • In theory, it can move so fast that ripples on the surface are no longer able to escape back upstream.
  • Interestingly, the escape response to trucks persists in the absence of real danger.
  • There is no record of a successful escape ever being made.
  • At a research university, you may be able to escape a certain amount of student contact by immersing yourself in your scholarship.
British Dictionary definitions for escape

escape

/ɪˈskeɪp/
verb
1.
to get away or break free from (confinements, captors, etc): the lion escaped from the zoo
2.
to manage to avoid (imminent danger, punishment, evil, etc): to escape death
3.
(intransitive) usually foll by from. (of gases, liquids, etc) to issue gradually, as from a crack or fissure; seep; leak: water was escaping from the dam
4.
(transitive) to elude; be forgotten by: the actual figure escapes me
5.
(transitive) to be articulated inadvertently or involuntarily: a roar escaped his lips
6.
(intransitive) (of cultivated plants) to grow wild
noun
7.
the act of escaping or state of having escaped
8.
avoidance of injury, harm, etc: a narrow escape
9.
  1. a means or way of escape
  2. (as modifier): an escape route
10.
a means of distraction or relief, esp from reality or boredom: angling provides an escape for many city dwellers
11.
a gradual outflow; leakage; seepage
12.
Also called escape valve, escape cock. a valve that releases air, steam, etc, above a certain pressure; relief valve or safety valve
13.
a plant that was originally cultivated but is now growing wild
Derived Forms
escapable, adjective
escaper, noun
Word Origin
C14: from Old Northern French escaper, from Vulgar Latin excappāre (unattested) to escape (literally: to remove one's cloak, hence free oneself), from ex-1 + Late Latin cappa cloak
Word Origin and History for escape
v.

c.1300, from Old North French escaper, Old French eschaper (12c., Modern French échapper), from Vulgar Latin *excappare, literally "get out of one's cape, leave a pursuer with just one's cape," from Latin ex- "out of" (see ex-) + Late Latin cappa "mantle" (see cap (n.)). Related: Escaped; escaping.

n.

c.1400, from escape (v.); earlier eschap (c.1300). Mental/emotional sense is from 1853. Escape clause in the legal sense first recorded 1945.

escape in Medicine

escape es·cape (ĭ-skāp')
n.

  1. A gradual effusion from an enclosure; a leakage.

  2. A cardiological situation in which one pacemaker defaults or an atrioventricular conduction fails, and another pacemaker sets the heart's pace for one or more beats.

escape in Technology

language
An early system on the IBM 650.
[Listed in CACM 2(5):16 (May 1959)].
(1995-01-05)

character
(ESC) ASCII character 27.
When sent by the user, escape is often used to abort execution or data entry. When sent by the computer it often starts an escape sequence.
(1997-11-27)

Idioms and Phrases with escape

escape

In addition to the idiom beginning with escape also see: narrow escape