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:
County Sheriff’s Department ordered residents to evacuate as the Bike fire grew to 100 acres in size.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 11, 2026
Florida Senator Rick Scott encouraged residents in designated areas to evacuate as soon as possible, as he warned in a social media post: "DO NOT WAIT! Get out NOW!"
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
Gulf producers to evacuate platforms, shutting in production, although the storm track lies east of most U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
Some 85 households in the nearby village of Whelford were advised to evacuate and army bomb disposal experts called in to examine three vans stopped on a rural road.
From Barron's ● Sep. 27, 2026
At the Futaba hospital, 209 patients and the hospital staff prepared to evacuate.
From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland
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
Six medics move up and down the narrow corridor between two rows of three beds that run the length of the bus, which is part of Ukraine's Hospitallers Medical Battalion that evacuates troops across Ukraine.
From Reuters ● Mar. 16, 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
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 threat of exposure to the blazes led to them being evacuated in early September, Yiara said.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026
For those who have not evacuated, "the main thing will be having multiple ways to receive warnings" about tornadoes and storm surges, Watson said.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
Many people were evacuated from buildings in Panama City, about 200 kilometers from the epicenter, AFP witnessed.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
Personnel had been evacuated from eight production platforms and two drilling rigs, while another rig was moved out of the storm’s path.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
Why were no German Americans evacuated, it was asked, or Americans of Italian descent?
From "Farewell to Manzanar" by Jeanne Houston
Oil companies operating in the Gulf are used to temporarily cutting production and evacuating personnel from their rigs given the frequency of storms in the region.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
County fire and sheriff’s officials “caused a major gap in communication and a lag in response,” the consequences of which would become clear as incident command fell behind on evacuating west Altadena.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
The concentration of renewables projects in the north-western states of Gujarat and Rajasthan has also compounded the challenge of evacuating power in the face of such grid shortages.
From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026
After evacuating as many citizens as he could, the KMT’s 10th-army commander, Gen. Fang Xianjue, ordered the construction of massive defense works, blew a major bridge over the Xiang and prepared to make his stand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
Tonight the commander would be evacuating the Special Forces and their families.
From "Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam" by Elizabeth Partridge
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.
