verb
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to escape or avoid (capture, one's pursuers, etc), esp by cunning
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to avoid fulfilment of (a responsibility, obligation, etc); evade
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to escape discovery, or understanding by; baffle
the solution eluded her
Usage
Elude is sometimes wrongly used where allude is meant: he was alluding (not eluding) to his previous visit to the city
Related Words
See escape.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of elude
First recorded in 1530–40; from Latin ēlūdere “to deceive, evade,” equivalent to ē- “from, out of” + lūdere “to play, deceive”; see e- 1
Explanation
Elude means "evade or escape," like the way you might elude the other kids during a game of hide-and-seek. This word can also mean "to be hard to understand." No matter how hard you try, the finer points of quantum physics might elude you. Elude has a slippery feeling to it. You elude the police, math can elude you — and that yak you went to see on safari but never got a glimpse of, you might say that he has eluded you as well. Delude means "to deceive," and there are times when someone can both delude and elude you — like when the conman took your money and then escaped out the back door.
Vocabulary lists containing elude
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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The Outsiders
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Grade 9, List 1
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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.
Spoils of the Sea Elude Many in an Alaska Antipoverty Plan AKIAK, Alaska — The humble pollock, great cash fish of the north, conquered the world through the flaky bland hegemony of a fish stick.
From New York Times • Jun. 19, 2013
Films That Allow the Elusive to Elude "Ocean," a 2011 film by Charles Atlas, captures a performance of Merce Cunningham's magnum opus in Minnesota.
From New York Times • Apr. 9, 2012
Elude my power, and you are lost, irrevocably and eternally.
From The Crooked Stick or Pollies's Probation by Boldrewood, Rolf
Whose phantom features in the dome of Night Elude the keenest gaze of wistful eyes Till amplest lenses aid the failing sight, On heaven's blue sea the farthest isle of fire.
From John L. Stoddard's Lectures, Vol. 10 (of 10) Southern California; Grand Canon of the Colorado River; Yellowstone National Park by Stoddard, John L. (John Lawson)
Elude him though she might for a time, she was bound to be his helpless prisoner at the last.
From Greatheart by Dell, Ethel M. (Ethel May)
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.
