Definition of: escape

(ə·skāp′, e·skāp′) v. es·caped, es·cap·ing v.t.
1. To get away from; flee from, as guards or prison.
2. To avoid, as harm or evil.
3. To be uttered involuntarily; slip from: No cry escaped him.
4. To slip away from or elude (notice or recollection); fail to be understood or remembered.
—v.i.
5. To get free from or avoid arrest, custody, danger, etc.
6. To elude notice or recollection.
7. To come forth; emerge; leak: Gas is escaping from the stove.
8. Bot. To grow wild, as a newly introduced plant.
—noun
1. A successful flight from, or evasion of, custody, pursuit, danger, injury, or annoyance.
2. Mental relief from monotony, anxiety, etc.: literature of escape.
3. Issue, as of a fluid; leakage.
4. Bot. Any plant formerly cultivated that now grows wild in fields.
5. Obs. An outburst; sally.
6. Obs. An inadvertence; act of transgression. [<AF escaper <L ex- out + cappa a cloak]
—es·cap′er noun Synonyms (verb): abscond, avoid, decamp, depart, elude, evade, flee, fly, shun. To escape is to get away clear; to flee or fly is to attempt it, with or without success; to abscond is both to flee and to hide, or at least to seek concealment and obscurity. To escape may be noble and worthy; to abscond is ordinarily an act of cowardice and guilt. See AVOID.