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Synonyms

evade

American

[ih-veyd] / ɪˈveɪd /

verb (used with object)

to escape from by trickery or cleverness.

to evade one's pursuers.

Synonyms:

dodge, avoid

Antonyms:

confront, face
to get around by trickery.

to evade rules.
to avoid doing or fulfilling.

to evade an obligation.
to avoid answering directly.

to evade a question.
to elude; escape.

The solution evaded him.

verb (used without object)

to avoid doing or fulfilling something.
to elude or get away from someone or something by craft or slyness; escape.

evade British

/ ɪˈveɪd /

verb

to get away from or avoid (imprisonment, captors, etc); escape
to get around, shirk, or dodge (the law, a duty, etc)
(also intr) to avoid answering (a question)

"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

Synonym Usage

See escape.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of evade

First recorded in 1505–15; from Latin ēvādere “to pass over, go out,” equivalent to ē- “out of, from” + vādere “to go, walk” see e- ¹

Explanation

When you evade something, you escape it. You could evade a police chase by slipping into a secret alley, or you could evade your mother's questions about the missing cookies by slipping into another topic. Other things people like to evade? Death. Taxes. Creepy ex-boyfriends. The verb evade comes from Latin roots ex ("away) and vadere ("to walk"), meaning literally "to walk away or to escape." Definitely what you want to do with creepy ex-boyfriends.

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Vocabulary lists containing evade

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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:

evade evades evaded evading

He is accused of heading a company that routinely mislabeled shipments to evade taxes on fuel imported from Texas.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026

The captain said the drone appeared to be "small" because it managed to evade detection by "our air defence systems, and the port authority's own surveillance cameras didn't catch anything."

From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026

Iran has claimed it has a maneuverable re-entry warhead to evade air defenses.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

Both pathogens can develop resistance and become "superbugs" that evade frontline drugs such as vancomycin.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026

He went from attempting to evade them to wishing desperately that they’d find him.

From "Gregor the Overlander" by Suzanne Collins

Chip falls in with a troupe of street performers, evades the police, juggles along the Seine and eventually wanders into a smoky bar, where Penelope is strumming her guitar.

From Salon ● Jun. 30, 2026

In lab studies, the Cicada subvariant efficiently evades immunity from a prior vaccination or infection, according to a report published by the U.S.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 20, 2026

“It seems sometimes progress evades us,” Walker says.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 25, 2025

This "dark matter" is a mysterious entity that evades all forms of direct observation yet makes its presence felt through its invisible pull on visible objects.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 6, 2024

“Not everything’s about you,” Alyssa says, but the way she evades Jacqui’s glare tells me that this time it is.

From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

He’d evaded immigration agents at least three times before he was detained in late June.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026

The driver successfully and momentarily evaded officers, who found his abandoned motorcycle, valued at $5,000, in a nearby alley, according to Buttitta.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026

"Bradford has evaded inquiries for many, many years and it's time that the full truth about what happened comes out," she said.

From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026

Amazon researchers showed some safeguards on Fable could be evaded, alarming White House officials.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 14, 2026

Aarfy was like an eerie ogre in a dream, incapable of being bruised or evaded, and Yossarian dreaded him for a complex of reasons he was too petrified to untangle.

From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller

Incidents of such loss of control continue to be catnip for AI ethicists, who contend that companies are evading moral responsibilities and accountability by describing it as their AI making its own choices.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026

It can also be deeply damaging when it becomes a means of evading the truth.

From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2026

Officials said the drone had flown slow and low to the ground, evading U.S. air defenses.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026

Klette was arrested in her Berlin apartment in February 2024 after evading authorities for more than 30 years.

From Barron's ● May 27, 2026

They had been evading the Oxscinian Navy for years, always slipping in and out of the city before anyone noticed, stirring up trouble in their wake.

From "The Reader" by Traci Chee

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023