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escape definition

es·cape (e skāp, i-)

intransitive verb escaped -·caped′, escaping -·cap′·ing

  1. to get free; get away; get out; break loose, as from a prison
  2. to avoid an illness, accident, pain, etc. two were injured, but he escaped
  3. to flow, drain, or leak away gas escaping from a pipe
  4. to slip away; disappear the image escaped from her memory
  5. Bot. to grow wild, as a plant from a condition of cultivation

Etymology: ME escapen < NormFr escaper, var. of eschaper < VL *excappare < L ex-, out of (see ex-) + LL cappa, cloak (i.e., leave one's cloak behind)

transitive verb

  1. to get away from; flee from to escape pursuers
  2. to manage to keep away from; avoid to escape punishment
  3. to come from involuntarily or unintentionally a scream escaped from her lips
  4. to slip away from; be missed, unperceived, or forgotten by his name escapes me

noun

  1. an act or instance or escaping
  2. the state of having escaped
  3. a means or way of escape
  4. an outward flow or leakage
  5. a temporary mental release from reality movies are her escape
  6. Bot. a garden plant growing wild

Etymology: ME escap

adjective

  1. giving temporary mental release from reality
    1. making escape possible an escape hatch
    2. giving a basis for evading or circumventing a claim, responsibility, etc. an escape clause

Related Forms:

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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