verb
-
to run away from (a place, danger, etc); fly
to flee the country
-
(intr) to run or move quickly; rush; speed
she fled to the door
verb
noun
Usage
What does flee mean? To flee is to run away or escape from a dangerous or otherwise negative situation.Much less commonly, flee can be used to mean to move at a fast pace. The past tense of flee is fled.Example: He was forced to flee his home as a result of the impending battle.
Other Word Forms
- fleer noun
- outflee verb (used with object)
- unfleeing adjective
Etymology
Origin of flee
First recorded before 900; Middle English fleen, Old English flēon; cognate with Old High German flichan ( German fliehen ), Gothic thliuhan; compare Old English fleogan “to fly”; fly 2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In a downturn, a surefire way to make investors flee is to slow the information flow and make them wait an extra three months for updates.
As the business community’s primary mouthpiece, he has met with the mayor and state legislators and warned them that higher taxes could cause the city’s business elite to flee.
For the character he plays, the celebrated children’s book author Roald Dahl, is the kind of guy you would flee from at a party should you find yourself wedged in a corner with him.
The case posed a fundamental clash between the government’s need to manage surges at the border and the moral and historic right to offer asylum to those fleeing persecution.
From Los Angeles Times
He arrived in the U.S. at age 8 with his mother, rejoining his Orthodox rabbi father, who had fled Eastern Europe the year before.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
