escape

es•cape

[[t]ɪˈskeɪp[/t]] v. -caped, -cap•ing, n. adj.

1) to slip or get away, as from confinement or restraint

2) to avoid capture, punishment, or any threatened evil

3) to issue from a confining enclosure, as a gas or liquid

4) to slip away; fade

5) bot (of an orig. cultivated plant) to grow wild

6) to slip away from or elude:

to escape the police[/ex]

7) to succeed in avoiding:

to escape capture[/ex]

8) to elude (one's memory, notice, search, etc.)

9) (of a sound or utterance) to slip from or be expressed by inadvertently

10) an act or instance of escaping

11) the fact of having escaped

12) a means of escaping

13) avoidance of reality

14) leakage, as of water or gas, from a pipe or storage container

15) bot a plant that originated in cultivated stock and is now growing wild

16) cmp a key on a microcomputer keyboard, often used to return to a previous program screen

17) cvb for or providing an escape:

an escape hatch[/ex]

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Etymology: 1250–1300; < ONF escaper (F échapper) < VL *excappāre, v. der. (with ex- I) of LL cappa hooded cloak (see cap I) es•cap′a•ble, adj. es•cap′er, n. syn: escape, elude, evade mean to keep free of something. To escape is to succeed in keeping away from danger, pursuit, observation, etc.: to escape punishment. To elude is to slip through an apparently tight net, thus avoiding, often by a narrow margin, whatever threatens; it implies using adroitness or slyness to baffle or foil: The fox eluded the hounds. To evade is to turn aside from or go out of reach of a person or thing, usu. by directing attention elsewhere: to evade the police.