evasion

[ih-vey-zhuhn]

noun

1. an act or instance of escaping, avoiding, or shirking something.

   evasion of one's duty.

   Synonyms: avoidance

2. the avoiding of an argument, accusation, question, or the like, as by a subterfuge.

   The old political boss was notorious for his practice of evasion.

   Synonyms: quibbling, equivocation, prevarication

3. a means of evading; subterfuge; an excuse or trick to avoid or get around something.

   Her polite agreement was an evasion concealing what she really felt.

4. physical or mental escape.

5. an act or instance of violating the tax laws by failing or refusing to pay all or part of one's taxes.

evasion

/ ɪˈveɪʒən /

noun

1. the act of evading or escaping, esp from a distasteful duty, responsibility, etc, by trickery, cunning, or illegal means

   tax evasion

2. trickery, cunning, or deception used to dodge a question, duty, etc; means of evading

Other Word Forms

• evasional adjective
• nonevasion noun
• preevasion noun
• reevasion noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of evasion¹

1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin ēvāsiōn- (stem of ēvāsiō ), equivalent to ēvās ( us ) (past participle of ēvādere to go out; evade ) + -iōn- -ion

Word History and Origins

Origin of evasion¹

C15: from Late Latin ēvāsiō, from Latin ēvādere to go forth; see _evade

Example Sentences

Fan was one of China's highest paid actresses and starred in the X-Men and Iron Man franchises before she was targeted in a crackdown on tax evasion in 2018.

Read more on Barron's

The MPs said the corporation was now missing out on more than £1.1bn in potential lost income as a result of licence fee evasion and people saying they did not need a TV licence.

Read more on BBC

In practice, it’s a potential blueprint for sanctions evasion.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

You cannot be sent to prison for licence fee evasion, but you can be jailed for failing to pay the resulting fine.

Read more on BBC

Sun is charged with being an unregistered foreign agent for China, as well bribery, bank fraud, money laundering, tax evasion and other offenses.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• dodging www.thesaurus.com