escape hatch

noun

1. a hatch used for emergency escape, as from a submarine or aircraft.

2. a means of avoiding a troublesome situation; a ready or handy way out.

escape hatch

noun

1. a means of escape in an emergency, esp from a submarine

Word History and Origins

Origin of escape hatch¹

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

While both sides' leadership have shown little appetite for compromise, there have been signs of life on the back benches, with a handful of moderate Democrats working to find an escape hatch.

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Red warning lights flash above the door, and inside there is an emergency escape hatch into a tunnel in case something goes wrong.

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Red warning lights flash above the door, and inside there is an emergency escape hatch into a tunnel in case something went wrong.

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Throughout the novel, Rhys references Kant, De Beauvoir, Sartre, Virginia Woolf and Epictetus, among others, using knowledge as a balm and escape hatch.

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But it instead feels like an easy escape hatch when what “On Swift Horses” promised was a richer psychological landscape about what roils inside hearts accustomed to hiding.

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Related Words

• side door www.thesaurus.com