escape

escape [e skāp′, iskāp]

vi.

escaped, escaping [ME escapen < NormFr escaper, var. of eschaper < VL * excappare < L ex-, out of (see EX-¹) + LL cappa, cloak (i.e., leave one's cloak behind)]

1. to get free; get away; get out; break loose, as from a prison

2. to avoid an illness, accident, pain, etc. [two were injured, but he escaped]

3. to flow, drain, or leak away [gas escaping from a pipe]

4. to slip away; disappear [the image escaped from her memory]

5. Bot. to grow wild, as a plant from a condition of cultivation

vt.

1. to get away from; flee from [to escape pursuers]

2. to manage to keep away from; avoid [to escape punishment]

3. to come from involuntarily or unintentionally [a scream escaped from her lips]

4. to slip away from; be missed, unperceived, or forgotten by [his name escapes me]

n.

[ME escap]

1. an act or instance or escaping

2. the state of having escaped

3. a means or way of escape

4. an outward flow or leakage

5. a temporary mental release from reality [movies are her escape]

6. Bot. a garden plant growing wild

adj.

1. giving temporary mental release from reality

2.

a) making escape possible [an escape hatch]

b) giving a basis for evading or circumventing a claim, responsibility, etc. [an escape clause]

escapable

adj.

escaper

n.

SYN.- ESCAPE, as compared here, implies a getting out of, a keeping away from, or simply a remaining unaffected by an impending or present danger, evil, confinement, etc. [to escape death, criticism, etc. ]; to AVOID is to make a conscious effort to keep clear of something undesirable or harmful [to avoid crowds during a flu epidemic ]; to EVADE is to escape or avoid by artifice, cunning, adroitness, etc. [to evade pursuit, one's duty, etc. ]; to ELUDE is to escape the grasp of someone or something by artful or slippery dodges or because of a baffling quality [the criminal eluded the police; the meaning eluded him ]