flee
[flee]
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- to run away from (a place, person, etc.).
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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
Synonyms
See more synonyms for flee on Thesaurus.com3. evade, escape, avoid, shun, elude.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for flees
Contemporary Examples
But he loses his backpack in the process and it stays with the cops as he flees down the walkway toward Brooklyn.
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 HeroRegina Lizik
October 28, 2014
To try to find some happy ending, in a way, falsifies, flees from the reality.
In the wild, killer whales vie for dominance but the subdominant animal then flees the scene and the conflict subsides.
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 FictionAlyssa Rosenberg
April 10, 2013
Historical Examples
When the emotion is in full flood, the animal fights, flees, or faints.
Evolution in Modern ThoughtErnst Haeckel
He rushes at Villain, who flees and scales the park railings.
Occasionally we may start up a deer that flees away from us like the wind.
Conservation ReaderHarold 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 TorrentsJeanne Marie Bouvires de la Mot Guyon
flee1
- to run away from (a place, danger, etc); flyto flee the country
- (intr) to run or move quickly; rush; speedshe fled to the door
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Word Origin
Old English flēon; related to Old Frisian fliā, Old High German fliohan, Gothic thliuhan
flee2
- a Scot word for fly 1
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- a Scot word for fly 2
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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
v.
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.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper