escapist

[ ih-skey-pist ]

noun

1. a person who avoids reality by becoming absorbed in entertainment or fantasy:

   I, for one, am an escapist, so pondering whether an anime series is "looking out into the world" isn't something I concern myself with.

2. a person who tries or manages to get out of captivity; an escape artist or escapee:

   In 1864, the celebrated prison escapist Hamilton tunneled his way to freedom with 60 other captured Union officers.

adjective

1. avoiding reality through entertainment or fantasy, or enabling people to do so:

   His childhood taste for cowboy adventures and escapist films like Tarzan gave way to an admiration for realist European directors.

Word History and Origins

Origin of escapist¹

escap(e) ( def ) + -ist ( def )

Example Sentences

All of TheSoul’s brands stick to light and positive content, according to Potrel, which helped provide an escapist outlet during the doom and gloom of 2020.

From Digiday

Look for more of this kind of escapist programming—from high art to treacle, feeling good will be the new Breaking Bad.

From Time

In this context, “Dynamite,” which I had my reservations about, feels like the perfect exclamation point when it closes out Be — a fun, vibrant future fantasy whose lyrical nonsense becomes part of the album’s determinedly escapist milieu.

From Vox

While zoo livestreams have gained popularity as calming, escapist windows of cuteness, there are higher stakes here.

From MIT Technology Review

Their group lives in a constant limbo that would challenge any Outside reader’s escapist dreams.

From Outside Online

And that makes for a meandering, challenging, non-escapist viewing.

From The Daily Beast

Thus his love of escapist, desperately lighthearted writers like Laurence Sterne and Miguel de Cervantes.

From The Daily Beast

Perabo says it's because female viewers want an escapist fantasy when they're working hard balancing families and careers.

From The Daily Beast

And the theatrical world is picking up on that and again making escapist fare for the summer audience.

From The Daily Beast

Shannon Donnelly on the genre's surprising comeback and why viewers are flocking to escapist fare.

From The Daily Beast