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:
Earlier this year, Stagecoach in Indio, Calif., was forced to temporarily pause the festival and evacuate fans due to strong winds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
There was also a large wildfire in the Cairngorms that led to dozens of people having to temporarily evacuate their homes.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
German pensioner Petra Mertens did not hesitate when ordered to evacuate her home in the sleepy western border town of Monschau as an enormous fire advanced from neighbouring Belgium.
From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026
Remote-piloted drones help to deliver supplies and evacuate the wounded, rescuing servicemen, Ukraine’s most valuable resource, but they remain labor intensive.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Given the rain and the wind, it was impossible to try to evacuate them in the canoe.
From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers
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
Vlad Mahovsky, a volunteer who evacuates civilians, showed the BBC a message from a resident a few days ago.
From BBC ● Jan. 29, 2024
Extreme weather in March left at least 13 people dead and tens of thousands had to evacuates in Queensland and New South Wales, with town centres submerged, homes washed away and power cut.
From Reuters ● Sep. 17, 2022
Operation Frequent Wind evacuates most of the remaining American civilians and military personnel in addition to thousands of South Vietnamese.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 16, 2021
Dunmore on Gwynn's Island—Driven thence by General Lewis—Dunmore retires from Virginia—Affairs at Boston—Canada invaded—Howe evacuates Boston—Battles of Long Island and White Plains—Fort Washington captured—Washington retreats—Enemy defeated at Trenton and Princeton—Death of Mercer.
From History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia by Charles Campbell
The Associated Press reported that 14,000 homes had been ordered evacuated.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2026
Due to high winds at Stagecoach, festival promoter Goldenvoice postponed the festival Saturday night and attendees briefly evacuated.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
Kadim is the last of the settlements evacuated in 2005 to reopen.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
The Alcazaba, the complex's historic fortress and oldest section, was evacuated after the earthquake, while access to the Nasrid Palaces was suspended, it added.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
There she evacuated a group of loyal Dauntless—including Tobias— to a fire escape the Dauntless traitors had not sealed off.
From "Insurgent" by Veronica Roth
"There is a risk that the fire could reach homes, but we are deploying all available resources to protect them," he said, with a nearby gymnasium opened to accommodate those evacuating their homes.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
Images broadcast on Indonesian television showed hundreds of people in nearby Nagekeo regency evacuating the area from among the rubble of damaged buildings.
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
AFP footage showed dozens of Palestinians evacuating the area before the mosque was hit.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
There are no windows upstairs, but the lights have been left on, probably by someone hastily evacuating.
From "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins
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.
