evacuate
Americanverb (used with object)
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evacuates,
present (3rd person singular)
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evacuated,
past participle, past
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evacuating
present participle
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to leave empty; vacate.
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to remove (persons or things) from a place, as a dangerous place or disaster area, for reasons of safety or protection.
to evacuate the inhabitants of towns in the path of a flood.
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to remove persons from (a city, town, building, area, etc.) for reasons of safety.
to evacuate the embassy after a bomb threat.
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Military.
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to remove (troops, wounded soldiers, civilians, etc.) from a war zone, combat area, etc.
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to withdraw from or quit (a town, fort, etc., that has been occupied).
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Physiology. to discharge or eject as through the excretory passages, especially from the bowels.
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to deprive.
Fear evacuated their minds of reason.
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to produce a vacuum in.
verb
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(also intr) to withdraw or cause to withdraw from (a place of danger) to a place of greater safety
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to make empty by removing the contents of
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(also intr) physiol
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to eliminate or excrete (faeces); defecate
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to discharge (any waste product) from (a part of the body)
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(tr) to create a vacuum in (a bulb, flask, reaction vessel, etc)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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evacuatesimple
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evacuatessimple
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have evacuatedperfect
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has evacuatedperfect
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am evacuatingprogressive
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are evacuatingprogressive
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is evacuatingprogressive
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have been evacuatingperfect progressive
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has been evacuatingperfect progressive
Past
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evacuatedsimple
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had evacuatedperfect
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was evacuatingprogressive
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were evacuatingprogressive
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had been evacuatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of evacuate
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin ēvacuātus “emptied out” (past participle of ēvacuāre, equivalent to ē- + vacuāre ); see origin at e- 1, vacuum, -ate 1
Explanation
To evacuate is to flee, like how people leave an area when a hurricane is coming. It also means to empty something completely. If you have to evacuate your home, something horrible is probably happening, like a natural disaster. People evacuate when something like a tornado or act of terrorism makes their homes unsafe. To evacuate also means to empty completely, in the bathroom-oriented sense of evacuating (emptying) your bowels. Similarly, if a chemist empties and therefore creates a vacuum in a flask, she has evacuated the flask. When you evacuate, you clear out.
Vocabulary lists containing evacuate
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There's No There There: Synonyms for "Empty"
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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.
See Examples For:
They sparked a race to evacuate as much as $4 billion worth of aircraft stationed there.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
Later that month Typhoon Saudel made landfall in three south-eastern Chinese cities over one week, shutting transport networks and forcing thousands to evacuate.
From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026
Over the past three days, a humanitarian ceasefire that has made it possible to evacuate inhabitants of Oleshky, a nearby town under Russian occupation and gripped by hunger.
From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026
Schools shifted to online-only learning, while many businesses — including Saudi Aramco, the country’s state-owned oil company — were ordered to evacuate headquarters and have all staff work remotely.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026
Outside the control rooms, they scrambled to evacuate.
From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland
But in France, Marielle Mourgeon was among 4,000 people forced to cut holidays short in the seaside village of Lacanau, near Bordeaux, after authorities ordered camping sites evacuates as a precaution.
From Barron's ● Jul. 28, 2026
He said his administration evacuates about 100 people from the city daily on trains and buses on a voluntary basis.
From Reuters ● Feb. 23, 2023
Heidt also recommends an air medical transport membership like Medjet, which evacuates you in case of a medical emergency.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 9, 2023
Project Dynamo, a US-based non-profit that evacuates American civilians from risky situations abroad, has warned Mr Murekezi could face the death penalty in Donetsk.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2022
The 28th, they march upon New York, and the combined army commences investing it; the 29th, reconnoitring the place; the 30th, the enemy evacuates the advance posts, and retires into the works of York.
From Memoirs, Correspondence and Manuscripts of General Lafayette by Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette
A number of high-profile Irish media organisations, including Ireland's public service broadcaster RTÉ, have been evacuated after threats were made against them.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026
Residents evacuated from the devastated Russian-occupied city of Oleshky have arrived in Belarus and are expected back in Ukraine later on Saturday, authorities have said.
From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2026
Neither Moscow nor Kyiv has specified the number of people evacuated, and authorities in both countries previously indicated that many residents wished to remain in the city, even in the event of renewed fighting.
From Barron's ● Oct. 31, 2026
AFP reporters saw jubilant scenes as the evacuees disembarked buses in Ukraine's northern Chernigiv region, having been evacuated via Belarus.
From Barron's ● Oct. 31, 2026
“My dad says they evacuated all the buildings at Fermi. There’s police at all the entrances, and apparently there is going to be the Army or the National Guard, too. He’s at home already.”
From "Love, Hate & Other Filters" by Samira Ahmed
Oil companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico, which the U.S. now calls the Gulf of America, have been cutting production and evacuating personnel from offshore facilities.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
Oil companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico have begun curbing production and evacuating personnel from offshore facilities as the region braces for Tropical Storm Isaias.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
Two people working in Riyadh's business hub -- the King Abdullah Financial District -- told AFP that some companies were evacuating staff from the area.
From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026
County fire and sheriff’s officials “caused a major gap in communication and a lag in response,” the consequences of which would become clear as incident command fell behind on evacuating west Altadena.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
There are no windows upstairs, but the lights have been left on, probably by someone hastily evacuating.
From "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
