Synonyms

evade

American

[ih-veyd] / ɪˈveɪd /

verb (used with object)

to escape from by trickery or cleverness.

to evade one's pursuers.

Synonyms:

dodge, avoid

Antonyms:

confront, face
to get around by trickery.

to evade rules.
to avoid doing or fulfilling.

to evade an obligation.
to avoid answering directly.

to evade a question.
to elude; escape.

The solution evaded him.

verb (used without object)

to avoid doing or fulfilling something.
to elude or get away from someone or something by craft or slyness; escape.

evade British

/ ɪˈveɪd /

verb

to get away from or avoid (imprisonment, captors, etc); escape
to get around, shirk, or dodge (the law, a duty, etc)
(also intr) to avoid answering (a question)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Synonym Usage

See escape.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of evade

First recorded in 1505–15; from Latin ēvādere “to pass over, go out,” equivalent to ē- “out of, from” + vādere “to go, walk” see e- ¹

Explanation

When you evade something, you escape it. You could evade a police chase by slipping into a secret alley, or you could evade your mother's questions about the missing cookies by slipping into another topic. Other things people like to evade? Death. Taxes. Creepy ex-boyfriends. The verb evade comes from Latin roots ex ("away) and vadere ("to walk"), meaning literally "to walk away or to escape." Definitely what you want to do with creepy ex-boyfriends.

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Vocabulary lists containing evade

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Refugee

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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.

Soon after disembarking at Hong Kong's train station, Chinese private investor Feng was opening a stock trading account at a nearby brokerage, hoping to evade tighter restrictions on capital leaving the country.

From Barron's • Jul. 3, 2026

This year, the Justice and Treasury Departments have been investigating Iran’s use of Binance to evade U.S. sanctions since the guilty plea.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 1, 2026

Rossi had fled to Scotland in 2021 in an attempt to evade justice but was arrested in the Covid ward of a Glasgow hospital.

From BBC • Jun. 26, 2026

Those materials reveal a legal culture that has become so familiar with the mechanics of Batson that lawyers are taught how to navigate around it and have developed a way to evade judicial reprimand.

From Slate • Jun. 17, 2026

The trick with these silent words is to walk in the spaces between them, turn sideways in your head, evade.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023