escapade
Americannoun
-
a wild or exciting adventure, esp one that is mischievous or unlawful; scrape
-
any lighthearted or carefree episode; prank; romp
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of escapade
1645–55; < French < Spanish escapada, equivalent to escap ( ar ) to escape + -ada -ade 1
Explanation
An escapade is an adventure, tinged with a hint of danger. A road trip could be an escapade, or a few weeks making a living as a professional gambler, or posing as your twin sister and taking a test for her in math. You'll notice the similarities between the words escapade and escape. Usually an escapade involves some form of escape. If you cut class and spend the day at the beach, that's an escapade. If you cut class to watch former figure-skating greats boogying to Broadway tunes on ice, that's an escapade at the Ice Capades.
Vocabulary lists containing escapade
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
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The Boy on the Wooden Box
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The Egypt Game
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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:
Three of the group - Bex, Ali Wright and Amanda Jean - work with local radio station Now Ayrshire, which is why they all ended up roped into this escapade.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
Mr. Refn understandably feels liberated to venture forth on whatever kind of crazy cinematic escapade he wants, and if you don’t get it, that’s on you.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
A group of killer whales have been documented blowing a sunfish to bits in an unusual underwater escapade offering never-before-seen insights into orca behaviour, according to research released Thursday.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
Their ensuing escapade will surely reach doom levels.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 30, 2025
They lingered by the road after their lunchtime meal, the white men smoking pipes by the horses and reminiscing an escapade.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
But the tightrope coach Brendon McCullum and captain Harry Brook are walking is so precarious after England's Ashes defeat and Brook's Wellington escapades, a defeat here may have sent them tumbling to new depths.
From BBC ● Feb. 8, 2026
The warhorse Wawrinka departed for a medical timeout after the third set as his Melbourne escapades caught up with him.
From Barron's ● Jan. 24, 2026
I couldn’t resist Greg Steinmetz’s “American Rascal,” about Jay Gould and the escapades that led to American industrialization on the back of the railroads.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025
Unlike many of his tech titan peers, who preferred quiet pursuits and carefully crafted public personas, Ellison reveled in his flamboyant escapades and the attention it attracted.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 6, 2025
One night long ago, he had kept Manolo and me, as well as Elsa, in stitches with tales of his journalistic escapades.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
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.
