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.
My family evacuated about an hour after my mom called.
From Los Angeles Times
Moscow maintains the children were evacuated from danger.
From BBC
And almost a year ago, a fire burned at a battery storage site in Moss Landing for two days, requiring more than 1,000 people to be evacuated.
From Los Angeles Times
Firefighters worked to control the fire, while South Wales Police officers closed nearby roads and evacuated residents from adjacent properties.
From BBC
The Defense Ministry’s March document says Ukraine would increase its use of unmanned ground vehicles, such as drones to evacuate casualties, to 80% of its “maneuver brigades,” or mechanized infantry.
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.
