escape artist

noun

1. an entertainer expert in getting out of handcuffs, ropes, chains, trunks, or other confining devices.

2. an inmate of a prison who has a reputation for being able to escape confinement.

Word History and Origins

Origin of escape artist¹

First recorded in 1940–45

Example Sentences

He was a runner and escape artist.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The escape room industry has exploded over the last decade, with an estimated 2,000 facilities in the U.S., according to a 2023 industry report from Room Escape Artist, an enthusiast site that maintains a running database of every known room in the country.

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There’s so much potential in the 35-acre expanse that dates to the 1880s and was once a symbol of municipal pride, as well as a setting for Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton movies and for a stunt in which escape artist Harry Houdini jumped into the lake in chains.

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You want to solve them not for the sake of the puzzles themselves but for the sake of the character and the story,” says Lisa Spira, co-founder of Room Escape Artist, a site dedicated to the escape room sector.

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Love him or hate him — and there’s little in between — they have long considered him an escape artist through career-spanning thickets of legal, business and political thorns.

Read more on Seattle Times

Related Words

• Houdini 
• escapologist