evacuate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to leave empty; vacate.
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to remove (persons or things) from a place, as a dangerous place or disaster area, for reasons of safety or protection.
to evacuate the inhabitants of towns in the path of a flood.
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to remove persons from (a city, town, building, area, etc.) for reasons of safety.
to evacuate the embassy after a bomb threat.
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Military.
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to remove (troops, wounded soldiers, civilians, etc.) from a war zone, combat area, etc.
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to withdraw from or quit (a town, fort, etc., that has been occupied).
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Physiology. to discharge or eject as through the excretory passages, especially from the bowels.
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to deprive.
Fear evacuated their minds of reason.
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to produce a vacuum in.
verb
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(also intr) to withdraw or cause to withdraw from (a place of danger) to a place of greater safety
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to make empty by removing the contents of
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(also intr) physiol
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to eliminate or excrete (faeces); defecate
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to discharge (any waste product) from (a part of the body)
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(tr) to create a vacuum in (a bulb, flask, reaction vessel, etc)
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of evacuate
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin ēvacuātus “emptied out” (past participle of ēvacuāre, equivalent to ē- + vacuāre ); see origin at e- 1, vacuum, -ate 1
Explanation
To evacuate is to flee, like how people leave an area when a hurricane is coming. It also means to empty something completely. If you have to evacuate your home, something horrible is probably happening, like a natural disaster. People evacuate when something like a tornado or act of terrorism makes their homes unsafe. To evacuate also means to empty completely, in the bathroom-oriented sense of evacuating (emptying) your bowels. Similarly, if a chemist empties and therefore creates a vacuum in a flask, she has evacuated the flask. When you evacuate, you clear out.
Vocabulary lists containing evacuate
May the 4th Be With You: Star Wars Words
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Zilch, Zip, Nada: Words For Nothing
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There's No There There: Synonyms for "Empty"
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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.
"I urge everyone," he said, "take care of yourselves. Evacuate to safer regions of Ukraine!"
From BBC • Sep. 12, 2025
Around 3 a.m., a loudspeaker atop a mosque in Gaza City blared a stark warning to residents of nearby apartment buildings: Evacuate immediately.
From Seattle Times • Oct. 7, 2023
"We heard a noise. Our neighbours were shouting, 'Get out of the house! Evacuate the house!', so we ran away, into the street," she said.
From Reuters • May 13, 2023
Evacuate the area by foot and get to higher ground.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 25, 2021
“Evacuate now! The federals have entered Nsukka! We are evacuating now! Right now! I am going to all the houses still occupied. Evacuate now!”
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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.
