Skip to definition.
Get the FREE one-click dictionary software for Windows or the iPhone/iPad and Android apps


Verb: escape  i'skeyp
  1. Run away from confinement
    "The convicted murderer escaped from a high security prison";
    - get away, break loose
     
  2. Fail to experience
    "Fortunately, I escaped the hurricane";
    - miss
     
  3. Escape potentially unpleasant consequences; get away with a forbidden action
    "She escapes with murder!";
    - get off [informal], get away, get by, get out
     
  4. Be incomprehensible to; escape understanding by
    "What you are seeing in him escapes me";
    - elude
     
  5. Remove oneself from a familiar environment, usually for pleasure or diversion
    "We escaped to our summer house for a few days";
    - get away
     
  6. Flee; take to one's heels; cut and run
    "The burglars escaped before the police showed up";
    - scat [informal], run, scarper [Brit, informal], turn tail [informal], lam [N. Amer, informal], run away, hightail it [N. Amer, informal], bunk [informal], head for the hills [informal], take to the woods [informal], fly the coop [informal], break away, leg it [Brit, informal]
     
  7. Issue or leak, as from a small opening
    "Gas escaped into the bedroom"
     
  8. (computing) change characters that normally have a special meaning so that they appear as literal characters rather than having their meaning applied, e.g. by prefixing the character with a special 'escape' character
    "often quotation marks are escaped by prefixing with a backslash"
Noun: escape  i'skeyp
  1. The act of escaping physically
    "he made his escape from the mental hospital";
    - flight
     
  2. An inclination to retreat from unpleasant realities through diversion or fantasy
    "romantic novels were her escape from the stress of daily life";
    - escapism
     
  3. Nonperformance of something distasteful (as by deceit or trickery) that you are supposed to do
    "that escape from the consequences is possible but unattractive";
    - evasion, dodging
     
  4. An avoidance of danger or difficulty
    "that was a narrow escape"
     
  5. A means or way of escaping
    "hard work was his escape from worry"; "they installed a second hatch as an escape"; "their escape route"
     
  6. A plant originally cultivated but now growing wild
     
  7. The discharge of a fluid from some container
    "they tried to stop the escape of gas from the damaged pipe";
    - leak, leakage, outflow
     
  8. A valve in a container in which pressure can build up (as a steam boiler); it opens automatically when the pressure reaches a dangerous level
    - safety valve, relief valve, escape valve, escape cock
     
  9. (computing) a key on most modern computer keyboards (often abbreviated "Esc"); typically programmed to cancel the current operation or close the current window
    - escape key

Derived forms: escaped, escaping, escapes

Type of: agency, avoid, avoidance, baffle, beat, bedevil, befuddle, bewilder, carelessness, come forth, come out, confound, confuse, cut and run [informal], discharge, discombobulate [informal], diversion, dodging, dumbfound, egress, emerge, flee, flora, flummox, fly, fox, fuddle, get, go away, go forth, gravel, issue, leave, means, mystify, neglect, negligence, nonperformance, nonplus, off [informal], outpouring, perplex, plant, plant life, pose, puzzle, recreation, regulator, run, running away, shunning, stick, stupefy, take flight, throw, turning away, valve, vex, way

Encyclopedia: Escape