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.
"I have an emergency bag prepared in case I have to evacuate... This is just a habit I got from Myanmar."
From BBC
The state has not put in place any strategy to evacuate people with disabilities, said Sylvana Lakkis, head of the Lebanese Union for People with Physical Disabilities.
From Barron's
Carla Lockhart said about 100 homes have been evacuated as a result of the incident and that a controlled explosion has taken place.
From BBC
At least eight children who were evacuated from Gaza as premature babies in the early weeks of the war, have returned from Egypt and been reunited with their relatives.
From BBC
“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
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.
