evade

[ih-veyd]

See more synonyms for evade on Thesaurus.com

verb (used with object), e·vad·ed, e·vad·ing.

to escape from by trickery or cleverness: to evade one's pursuers.
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), e·vad·ed, e·vad·ing.

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

Origin of evade

1505–15; < Latin ēvādere to pass over, go out, equivalent to ē- e-¹ + vādere to go, walk

Related formse·vad·a·ble, e·vad·i·ble, adjectivee·vad·er, noune·vad·ing·ly, adverbnon·e·vad·a·ble, adjectivenon·e·vad·i·ble, adjectivenon·e·vad·ing, adjectivenon·e·vad·ing·ly, adverbpre·e·vade, verb (used with object), pre·e·vad·ed, pre·e·vad·ing.un·e·vad·a·ble, adjectiveun·e·vad·ed, adjectiveun·e·vad·i·ble, adjectiveun·e·vad·ing, adjective

Can be confusedavoid evade

Synonym study

1. See escape.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for evade

dodge, hide, deceive, conceal, flee, avoid, sidestep, elude, bypass, escape, circumvent, pussyfoot, shuffle, fence, confuse, waffle, duck, prevaricate, decline, equivocate

Examples from the Web for evade

Contemporary Examples of evade

Our mockery of celebworld helps us evade the soul-crushing decadence concealed within.
Pyongyang Shuffle: Hollywood In Dead Panic Over Sony Hack
James Poulos
December 19, 2014
One gets the sense that they are wearing a mask to confuse their readers, and even to evade them.
Sor Juana: Mexico’s Most Erotic Poet and Its Most Dangerous Nun
Katie Baker
November 8, 2014
They have blocked vehicle access, but pedestrians have managed to evade them.
Whatever You Do Someone Will Die. A Short Story About Impossible Choices in Iraq
Nathan Bradley Bethea
August 31, 2014
Powers had no chance to evade it, and bailed out as his U-2 spun down to earth.
Russia’s Missiles Stung the World Long Before MH17
Clive Irving
July 20, 2014
He managed to evade capture by American and Iraqi forces and has been in hiding pretty much since then.
Someone Is Spilling ISIS’s Secrets on Twitter
Jacob Siegel
June 18, 2014

Historical Examples of evade

He tried to evade immediate payment, but on this point his creditor was peremptory.
Brave and Bold
Horatio Alger
Manlike, having raised the issue, K. would have given much to evade it.
K
Mary Roberts Rinehart
"You are trying to evade me, Mr. Hewson," she said, with a severity he found charming.
Questionable Shapes
William Dean Howells
It is of no use for us to think to evade this law; neither is it a law wholly of retribution.
Hetty's Strange History
Anonymous
In his nobler moods he feels that this is but to evade the difficulty.
Bunyan
James Anthony Froude

British Dictionary definitions for evade

evade

verb (mainly tr)

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)

Derived Formsevadable, adjectiveevader, nounevadingly, adverb

Word Origin for evade

C16: from French évader, from Latin ēvādere to go forth, from vādere to go

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

Word Origin and History for evade

1510s, "escape," from Middle French evader, from Latin evadere "to escape, get away," from ex- "away" (see ex-) + vadere "to go, walk" (see vamoose). Related: Evaded; evading. Special sense of "escape by trickery" is from 1530s.