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
May the 4th Be With You: Star Wars Words
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Zilch, Zip, Nada: Words For Nothing
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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:
For now, they mainly help evacuate wounded soldiers from the battlefield or ferry supplies -- reducing the need to send more men into the kill zone.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
The fires forced hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate and destroyed hundreds of homes.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 5, 2026
Authorities arrested a man Monday for allegedly sparking one of several uncontained Washington state wildfires that have so far scorched thousands of acres and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
Local law enforcement agencies also worked with great urgency to evacuate residents, Clemo added.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
When the first two tsunami warnings, predicting 10-and 20-foot waves, were announced on TV, he ordered all workers to evacuate to either the seismic isolated building or high ground.
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
Vlad Mahovsky, a volunteer who evacuates civilians, showed the BBC a message from a resident a few days ago.
From BBC ● Jan. 29, 2024
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
Working with the Ukrainian aid group Vostok SOS, most of those he evacuates now from towns and cities such as Bakhmut, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk are elderly or ailing.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 9, 2022
Faith taught to Rezia 175; legends, 184; Fierefiss becomes a, 200; faith, 277; army besieges Coimbra, 287; king takes Toledo, 294; army evacuates Valencia, 300.
From Legends of the Middle Ages Narrated with Special Reference to Literature and Art by Guerber, H. A. (Hélène Adeline)
Wildfires have raged across Europe over the two weeks, primarily in France and Spain, where more than 330,000 people were evacuated.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
On July 7, city officials found two failed columns and several sagging floors and ordered the building evacuated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
Authorities evacuated more than 500 people last year after Fuego spewed gas and ash, with residents moved to shelters from communities near the crater.
From Barron's ● Aug. 4, 2026
“The sheriff evacuated 60,000 people out of a portion of Spokane in a matter of two hours without injury or accident,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
The children were evacuated, the museums emptied of paintings, the storefronts shuttered.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
David Sanchez, a 48-year-old painter and decorator, had just returned home to Cebreros after evacuating at the weekend to find that his small olive and pistachio grove had been consumed by the inferno.
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
Gillam-Kirton's mother had texted her that evening to say they were evacuating, but the couple had not been heard from since.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
More rain is forecast for the coming days, with authorities issuing warnings for more landslides and floods, and evacuating families in high risk areas.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
Even in the worsening atmosphere, Shekhova was packed but still indecisive about evacuating.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
“The elders decided it was time. There are all kinds of silly rumors about Abba evacuating soon. Some ignoramuses even say the federal troops have entered Awka!”
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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.
