escape
Americanverb (used without object)
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escapes,
present (3rd person singular)
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escaped,
past participle, past
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escaping
present participle
-
to slip or get away, as from confinement or restraint; gain or regain liberty.
to escape from jail.
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to slip away from pursuit or peril; avoid capture, punishment, or any threatened evil.
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to issue from a confining enclosure, as a fluid.
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to slip away; fade.
The words escaped from memory.
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Botany. (of an originally cultivated plant) to grow wild.
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(of a rocket, molecule, etc.) to achieve escape velocity.
verb (used with object)
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escapes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
escaped,
past participle, past
-
escaping
present participle
-
to slip away from or elude (pursuers, captors, etc.).
He escaped the police.
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to succeed in avoiding (any threatened or possible danger or evil).
She escaped capture.
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to elude (one's memory, notice, search, etc.).
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to fail to be noticed or recollected by (a person).
Her reply escapes me.
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(of a sound or utterance) to slip from or be expressed by (a person, one's lips, etc.) inadvertently.
noun
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escapes
plural
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an act or instance of escaping.
- Synonyms:
- flight
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the fact of having escaped.
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a means of escaping.
We used the tunnel as an escape.
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avoidance of reality.
She reads mystery stories as an escape.
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leakage, as of water or gas, from a pipe or storage container.
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Botany. a plant that originated in cultivated stock and is now growing wild.
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Physics, Rocketry. the act of achieving escape velocity.
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(usually initial capital letter) Escape key.
adjective
verb
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to get away or break free from (confinements, captors, etc)
the lion escaped from the zoo
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to manage to avoid (imminent danger, punishment, evil, etc)
to escape death
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(of gases, liquids, etc) to issue gradually, as from a crack or fissure; seep; leak
water was escaping from the dam
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(tr) to elude; be forgotten by
the actual figure escapes me
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(tr) to be articulated inadvertently or involuntarily
a roar escaped his lips
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(intr) (of cultivated plants) to grow wild
noun
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the act of escaping or state of having escaped
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avoidance of injury, harm, etc
a narrow escape
-
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a means or way of escape
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( as modifier )
an escape route
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a means of distraction or relief, esp from reality or boredom
angling provides an escape for many city dwellers
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a gradual outflow; leakage; seepage
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Also called: escape valve. escape cock. a valve that releases air, steam, etc, above a certain pressure; relief valve or safety valve
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a plant that was originally cultivated but is now growing wild
Synonym Usage
Escape, elude, evade mean to keep free of something. To escape is to succeed in keeping away from danger, pursuit, observation, etc.: to escape punishment. To elude implies baffling pursuers or slipping through an apparently tight net: The fox eluded the hounds. To evade is to turn aside from or go out of reach of a person or thing: to evade the police. See also avoid.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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escapernoun
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preescapenoun
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self-escapenoun
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escapableadjective
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escapelessadjective
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unescapableadjective
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unescapedadjective
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escapinglyadverb
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unescapablyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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escapesimple
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escapessimple
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have escapedperfect
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has escapedperfect
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am escapingprogressive
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are escapingprogressive
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is escapingprogressive
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have been escapingperfect progressive
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has been escapingperfect progressive
Past
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escapedsimple
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had escapedperfect
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was escapingprogressive
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were escapingprogressive
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had been escapingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of escape
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English escapen, ascapen, from Old North French escaper, from French échapper or directly from unattested Vulgar Latin excappāre, verbal derivative (with ex- “out of, from”) of Late Latin cappa “hooded cloak”; see ex- 1, cap 1
Explanation
To escape is to break free, to get out of a situation you don’t want to be in. It’s also a noun, as in an escape from a dull party that might involve a ladder and an upstairs window. It’s hard to pin down the word escape. An escape can be the act of escaping, like an escape from prison, but an escape can also be a calming retreat, like a vacation that gets you away from the stress of everyday life. As a verb, escape also means, "to fail to experience or know.” If the humor escapes you, you don't find the joke funny.
Vocabulary lists containing escape
Beowulf vocabulary
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"The Experiment" and "Superstition"
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Selection Vocabulary 1, Unit 2
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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.
See Examples For:
Scientists think this behavior may help the organism escape predators or communicate with other ciliates.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026
No. 12 USC ultimately managed to escape Rutgers with a 42-35 win.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
That said, the performances are so captivating that one quickly becomes embroiled in the imperiled fates of the characters and their flailing attempts to either escape or ignore them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
Short came to embody the inverse of that picture, the shaded gloom lurking in places that escape sunshiny illumination.
From Salon ● Sep. 18, 2026
When she ran away to marry Hans, for example, she’d had to escape the watchful eye of her father, sneak off on foot, and swim half a mile to their rendezvous point.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
Jordan, who escapes relatively unscathed, is at once cowed and traumatized yet committed to vengeance.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
After that, Anthropic and others began checking their logs and noticed escapes and hacks dating back months.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
As the potato heats up, however, that water turns into vapor and escapes.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026
But Joshua produced one of the greatest escapes of his career, and now that fight is on.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
While it makes perfect sense to me, this pragmatic view of religion escapes the Reverend utterly.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
In July, Anthropic's Claude escaped its test environment to hack three organisations on its own just days after OpenAI said its models had carried out cyber-attacks against several "publicly available services".
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
If this book shows that the royals haven't escaped the legacy of Diana's death, then it also shows that neither has he.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
Lilly Cassirer Neubauer escaped Germany at the dawn of World War II by relinquishing to a Nazi art broker the exquisite impressionist masterpiece “Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon. Effect of Rain,” by Camille Pissarro.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
Before dawn on Sept. 8, thieves in southern France broke into what was Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s last home, now a museum, and escaped with two of his paintings.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
Early escaped Carville four times in his first two years.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
Nine months after escaping Venezuela in disguise to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, María Corina Machado is preparing her next move.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
That combination is important because it suggests that reaching an exceptionally old age may not require escaping aging altogether.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026
“But worrying about the future is the same as the past. Those are the only places where anxiety lives, unless you’re literally escaping a bear that’s trying to eat you.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2026
It entered the headlines in July, when some 700 autonomous agents built by OpenAI breached the platform after escaping an isolated test environment.
From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026
A terrified John Garrett turned and ran, escaping the barn.
From "Chasing Lincoln's Killer" by James L. Swanson
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.
