evade
Americanverb (used with object)
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to escape from by trickery or cleverness.
to evade one's pursuers.
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to get around by trickery.
to evade rules.
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to avoid doing or fulfilling.
to evade an obligation.
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to avoid answering directly.
to evade a question.
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The solution evaded him.
verb (used without object)
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to avoid doing or fulfilling something.
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to elude or get away from someone or something by craft or slyness; escape.
verb
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to get away from or avoid (imprisonment, captors, etc); escape
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to get around, shirk, or dodge (the law, a duty, etc)
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(also intr) to avoid answering (a question)
Related Words
See escape.
Other Word Forms
- evadable adjective
- evader noun
- evadible adjective
- evadingly adverb
- nonevadable adjective
- nonevadible adjective
- nonevading adjective
- nonevadingly adverb
- preevade verb (used with object)
- unevadable adjective
- unevaded adjective
- unevadible adjective
- unevading adjective
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.
Vocabulary lists containing evade
List 2
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"The Crucible" -- Vocabulary from all 4 Acts
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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.
Such a ruling would allow people to maintain their legal status, keep their families intact, continue to work and bolster local economies, and evade danger in their home country.
From Salon • Apr. 30, 2026
Court documents describe her "repeated use of informal exchange entities across multiple transactions" in the arms deals as a "deliberate effort... to evade US sanctions".
From BBC • Apr. 20, 2026
Some might try to evade asset taxes by hiding their money in anonymous assets like cash and gold.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 18, 2026
Israel’s intelligence operatives spent weeks tracking Hezbollah’s unit commanders as they dispersed from their strongholds and regrouped in hide-outs around the country to evade Israeli attacks.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 17, 2026
As the andys can evade me and exist a finite stretch longer.
From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick
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.
