evacuate
Americanverb (used with object)
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evacuates,
present (3rd person singular)
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evacuated,
past participle, past
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evacuating
present participle
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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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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evacuatesimple
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evacuatessimple
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have evacuatedperfect
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has evacuatedperfect
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am evacuatingprogressive
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are evacuatingprogressive
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is evacuatingprogressive
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have been evacuatingperfect progressive
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has been evacuatingperfect progressive
Past
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evacuatedsimple
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had evacuatedperfect
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was evacuatingprogressive
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were evacuatingprogressive
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had been evacuatingperfect progressive
Future
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.
See Examples For:
With the State Department slow to initiate a full civilian evacuation, the military had only days to evacuate American citizens, Afghan allies and tens of thousands of others.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Tens of thousands of people have been told to evacuate from an area close to Reno, Nevada, as a large wildfire reached the outskirts of the city.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
"If you have been told to evacuate, please don't wait!"
From Barron's ● Aug. 24, 2026
A fast-moving wildfire was approaching Reno, Nev., on Sunday, with authorities urging nearly 90,000 people to evacuate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
But the army’s decision to evacuate was also upheld by the Supreme Court.
From "Farewell to Manzanar" by Jeanne Houston
But in France, Marielle Mourgeon was among 4,000 people forced to cut holidays short in the seaside village of Lacanau, near Bordeaux, after authorities ordered camping sites evacuates as a precaution.
From Barron's ● Jul. 28, 2026
He said his administration evacuates about 100 people from the city daily on trains and buses on a voluntary basis.
From Reuters ● Feb. 23, 2023
Project Dynamo, a US-based non-profit that evacuates American civilians from risky situations abroad, has warned Mr Murekezi could face the death penalty in Donetsk.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2022
Working with the Ukrainian aid group Vostok SOS, most of those he evacuates now from towns and cities such as Bakhmut, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk are elderly or ailing.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 9, 2022
If the enemy evacuates New York, we have the whole continental army, if not, we might perhaps have some more men, what number, however, I cannot pretend to judge.
From Memoirs, Correspondence and Manuscripts of General Lafayette by Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette
Alan Cameron, 40, said his family had moved between 13 different hotels over a 12-week period after the street was evacuated, before finding a rented property.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
During the so-called vent and burn of chemicals, residents within a one-by-two mile area were evacuated for about two days, then told it was safe to return.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
They were evacuated for medical care, during which two vehicles were damaged.
From Barron's ● Aug. 24, 2026
Meanwhile, Ozon workers in Adygeysk, in the Adygea region, and Nevinnomyssk, in the Stavropol region, have been evacuated.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
The boy said it came from a doctor in Stanleyville who was being evacuated.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
Residents in the town of Maumere on Flores Island were evacuating to higher ground, an AFP correspondent saw.
From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026
Peyton Maxwell, 23, got an alert on her Blink camera last week as she was evacuating and watched the wildfire approach her house in the Indian Trails neighborhood.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
At one point, Epping Forest District Council considered evacuating nearby houses due to the chaos.
From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2026
David Sanchez, a 48-year-old painter and decorator, had just returned home to Cebreros after evacuating at the weekend to find that his small olive and pistachio grove had been consumed by the inferno.
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
“The elders decided it was time. There are all kinds of silly rumors about Abba evacuating soon. Some ignoramuses even say the federal troops have entered Awka!”
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.
