flee

[flee]

verb (used without object), fled, flee·ing.

to run away, as from danger or pursuers; take flight.

to move swiftly; fly; speed.

verb (used with object), fled, flee·ing.

to run away from (a place, person, etc.).

Origin of flee

before 900; Middle English fleen, Old English flēon; cognate with Old High German flichan (German fliehen), Gothic thliuhan; compare Old English fleogan to fly¹

Related formsout·flee, verb (used with object), out·fled, out·flee·ing.un·flee·ing, adjective

Can be confusedflea flee

Synonyms for flee

3. evade, escape, avoid, shun, elude.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for flees

fly, jump, depart, get, leave, vanish, desert, retreat, blow, elude, skedaddle, abscond, skip, avoid, scoot, evade, break, scamper, hotfoot, decamp

Examples from the Web for flees

Contemporary Examples of flees

But he loses his backpack in the process and it stays with the cops as he flees down the walkway toward Brooklyn.
Protesters Slimed This Good Samaritan Cop
Michael Daly
December 16, 2014
Rick flees the underworld, in this case the prison, and returns to the world as a hero.
The Walking Dead’s Luke Skywalker: Rick Grimes Is the Perfect Modern-Day Mythical Hero
Regina Lizik
October 28, 2014
To try to find some happy ending, in a way, falsifies, flees from the reality.
Ron Rosenbaum on Hitler, Hollywood, and Quantifying Evil
William O’Connor
July 26, 2014
In the wild, killer whales vie for dominance but the subdominant animal then flees the scene and the conflict subsides.
‘Blackfish’ Director: Killer Whales Don’t Belong in Captivity
Gabriela Cowperthwaite
October 24, 2013
But their attempts to outrun his Secret Service detail end in disaster when Finn hits a woman and flees the scene.
‘Mad Men,’ ‘Game of Thrones,’ ‘The Americans’: Reading Prestige TV Dramas as YA Fiction
Alyssa Rosenberg
April 10, 2013

Historical Examples of flees

When the emotion is in full flood, the animal fights, flees, or faints.
Evolution in Modern Thought
Ernst Haeckel
He rushes at Villain, who flees and scales the park railings.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, March 29, 1916
Various
Occasionally we may start up a deer that flees away from us like the wind.
Conservation Reader
Harold W. Fairbanks
Like a bird that flees from a hawk, he has fallen into the hand of the fowler.
The Little Clay Cart
(Attributed To) King Shudraka
It flees from men, knowing that they regard it with aversion.
Spiritual Torrents
Jeanne Marie Bouvires de la Mot Guyon

British Dictionary definitions for flees

flee

verb flees, fleeing or fled

to run away from (a place, danger, etc); flyto flee the country

(intr) to run or move quickly; rush; speedshe fled to the door

Derived Formsfleer, noun

Word Origin for flee

Old English flēon; related to Old Frisian fliā, Old High German fliohan, Gothic thliuhan

flee

verb

a Scot word for fly 1

noun

a Scot word for fly 2

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 flees

flee

Old English fleon "take flight, fly from, avoid, escape" (contracted class II strong verb; past tense fleah, past participle flogen), from Proto-Germanic *thleukhanan (cf. Old High German fliohan, Old Norse flöja, Old Frisian flia, Dutch vlieden, German fliehen, Gothic þliuhan "to flee"), of unknown origin. Not found outside Germanic.

Weak past tense and past participle fled emerged Middle English, under influence of Scandinavian. Old English had a transitive form, geflieman "put to flight," which came in handy in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Related: Fleeing.