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