evacuate
Americanverb (used with object)
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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
- evacuation noun
- evacuative adjective
- evacuator noun
- reevacuate verb
- unevacuated adjective
Etymology
Origin of evacuate
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin ēvacuātus “emptied out” (past participle of ēvacuāre, equivalent to ē- + vacuāre ); e- 1, vacuum, -ate 1
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.
Aircraft with fewer people are easier to evacuate.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 8, 2026
"I have an emergency bag prepared in case I have to evacuate... This is just a habit I got from Myanmar."
From BBC • Mar. 31, 2026
“Aquaman” star Jason Momoa has revealed he was forced to evacuate his family’s Hawaii home after a dangerous storm devastated the area with historic flooding.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 30, 2026
OEM officials also said that an early alert to the 210 corridor could “create confusion and non-compliance,” given the high likelihood that those areas could later get an alert to evacuate.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 24, 2026
“No,” I said, “we wouldn’t have. We would have tried to evacuate everyone.”
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
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.
