Definition of escape in English:

1no object Break free from confinement or control.

1. 1.1with object Elude or get free from (someone)
   ‘he drove along the dual carriageway to escape police’
   More example sentences

   • ‘Many of the villages are located in the Troodos Mountains, which is where Cypriots go to escape the maddening crowds along the coast.’
   • ‘On the second occasion, she pleaded with paramedics at midnight to call the police because she wanted to be locked up and escape a man she claimed was after her.’
   • ‘After escaping the police, he had run along the roofs of the buildings and come to the end of the block.’
   • ‘Police believe she was escaping the abductor when she fell into the path of a passing car.’
   • ‘If you were escaping the police would you ask for the charge sheet and a copy of your statement as you absconded?’
   • ‘A 19-year-old who escaped police still wearing the handcuffs used to detain him has been brought to justice.’
   • ‘A driver who raced through Lancaster and caused a crash to escape police has been jailed for 15 months and banned from driving for two years.’
   • ‘Unrest was triggered by the deaths of two teenagers electrocuted in a power substation where they hid to escape police.’
   • ‘A boy of 15 riding a stolen moped crashed and died while trying to escape a police car, an inquest heard yesterday.’
   • ‘Take your car or two-wheeler but park it 200 meters away from the school to escape the traffic police.’
   • ‘A teenage motorist from Trowbridge who smashed into another car as he tried to escape police has been jailed for a year.’
   • ‘A banned driver drove his car dangerously down St Peters Way and then demolished a lamp post as he tried to escape police.’
   • ‘A serial car thief drove through a town centre at speeds of up to 70 mph to escape police.’
   • ‘He had tried to escape the police by hiding in a doorway in Ship Street, but was found after back-up had been called for.’
   • ‘It then swerved between parked cars as it tried to escape a pursuing police car.’
   • ‘There, before me, was my means of escaping the police, who were surely chasing me by now.’
   • ‘Sacrificing the other members of the gang would be no problem if he and his brother escaped a police trap.’
   • ‘So far he had escaped the police, the SAS and the army so many times he had lost count.’
   Synonyms

   get away from, escape from, elude, avoid, dodge, leave behind, shake off, fend off, keep at arm's length, keep out of someone's way, steer clear of, give someone a wide berth

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2. 1.2Succeed in avoiding or eluding something dangerous or unpleasant.
   ‘the driver escaped with a broken knee’
   with object ‘a baby boy narrowly escaped death’
   More example sentences

   • ‘A family who narrowly escaped with their lives after their home went up in flames have been dealt a second blow after burglars broke into the damaged house and stole hundreds of pounds worth of goods.’
   • ‘A Colchester couple and their nine-year-old son narrowly escaped with their lives after the tsunami hit their beachfront apartment in Sri Lanka.’
   • ‘Shots were fired and Tony narrowly escaped with his life.’
   • ‘A man narrowly escaped with his life after crashing into the back of a lorry at around 11.45 pm.’
   • ‘As it was, the boy escaped with a couple of bruises.’
   • ‘A seven-year-old boy miraculously escaped with only slight bruising and cuts after a brick thrown through a bus window hit him in the face.’
   • ‘Give your children the basics on how to avoid and escape potentially dangerous situations.’
   • ‘This three-month old baby escaped with a fractured wrist, but is now an orphan as both parents were killed.’
   • ‘His death comes less than a fortnight after another employee of the company escaped with minor injuries after also being shot at while driving his car in the city.’
   • ‘The rest of those in the car escaped with minor cuts and bruises.’
   • ‘His friend, Neil, escaped with cuts and bruises in the assault.’
   • ‘An elk jumped through his family's downstairs window, crashing into the kid's bed, but the toddler escaped with just a scratched cheek.’
   • ‘The lorry driver escaped with minor injuries after his vehicle came to rest on its side facing back south after hitting the stationary car.’
   • ‘The 17-year-old driver escaped with cuts and bruises.’
   • ‘A police officer escaped a bizarre accident with only minor injuries on Monday when a Port Authority crane overturned and smashed the boat he was in.’
   • ‘Last year, two North Yorkshire Police officers escaped speeding charges in neighbouring Cleveland because of a technicality.’
   • ‘Elsewhere, police and civilians escaped injury in a failed grenade attack on a police station on the border.’
   • ‘Even West Swindon's police station hasn't escaped the epidemic with the messy scrawl appearing all over it.’
   • ‘The bus driver escaped injury but police warned the attack could have had serious consequences.’
   • ‘Because they are so young, they are likely to escape prosecution, but police have agreed to hand over their names and addresses to bus bosses.’
   Synonyms

   avoid, evade, dodge, elude, miss, cheat, trick, sidestep, circumvent, skirt, keep out of the way of, bypass, shun, steer clear of, shirk

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3. 1.3(of a gas, liquid, or heat) leak from a container.
   ‘the CFCs have escaped into the atmosphere’
   More example sentences

   • ‘He was found alongside the body of his girlfriend; both had been poisoned by carbon monoxide gas escaping from the apartment's oven.’
   • ‘There is an undefined hiss like air escaping but right now that is it.’
   • ‘The low-tech way to protect against ice is to float a ball to keep an air hole open, letting noxious gases escape.’
   • ‘Gas was escaping at the house next door and there was a serious danger to life, the court heard.’
   • ‘Each time an exhaust valve in the engine opens, a pressure wave of hot gases escapes from the cylinder and travels down the exhaust system.’
   • ‘Their home was destroyed as they slept after gas escaped from a mains pipe into the foundations of their house and ignited.’
   • ‘Gas had escaped from an underground main into the foundations of the bungalow, forming an explosive cloud.’
   • ‘If there are any leaks in the system, radon gas will escape and be detected because of the radiation it emits.’
   • ‘This is because the gas can slowly escape through the pores of the plastic bottle.’
   • ‘Ammonia escapes into the atmosphere during manure storage and spraying.’
   • ‘Pale, grey gas escaped in a thin cloud from a minor vent on the side of the small craft.’
   • ‘The stream of superheated water escaping from the fissure was suddenly growing larger and was now headed straight for them.’
   • ‘If these gases escaped directly out of the engine, the noise generated would be tremendous.’
   • ‘If rings are too loose, liquid may escape from jars during processing, and seals may fail.’
   • ‘If a lot of water's escaping, re-solder the joint; smaller leaks can be sealed off with plumber's tape.’
   • ‘Returning to the house, I realised that leaving the front door wide open was probably a mistake, as a lot of heat was escaping from the kitchen.’
   • ‘Because the heat escapes through the roof or windows, many home owners invest in insulation, probably made from polluting petrochemicals.’
   • ‘It is an enclosed box from which hazardous gases cannot escape.’
   • ‘The company admitted allowing the potentially deadly chemical percholoroethylene to escape into the river.’
   • ‘Do not touch electrical switches: turning a light on or off can ignite escaping gas.’
   Synonyms

   leak, leak out, spill, spill out, seep, seep out, ooze, ooze out, exude, discharge, emanate, issue, flow, flow out, pour, pour out, gush, gush out, drip, drain, bleed

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4. 1.4with object (of words or sounds) issue involuntarily or inadvertently from (someone)
   ‘a sob escaped her lips’
   More example sentences

   • ‘‘No,’ I screamed, the word escaping me before I realised that it had left my lips.’
   • ‘His back arched involuntarily, and a content ‘mmm’ sound escaped his lips, edged with a groan.’
   • ‘I ran a hand through my hair and was about to say something, when Jess stormed past, a small, frustrated sound escaping her.’
   • ‘Plopping herself daintily down on the chair opposite Leah she poured herself a bowl of cereal, not a word escaping her once.’
   • ‘She smiled slightly at that but no sound escaped her.’
   • ‘A sound escaped him, but she wasn't sure if what she heard was laughing or weeping.’
   • ‘It was only when the words had escaped him that he recognised how much they gave away.’
   • ‘The only reason the word didn't escape her in a shriek was due to the fact that she didn't possess the energy to commit to such a sound.’
   • ‘Jonathon knew what he wanted to say, but his pride would not let the words escape him.’
   • ‘She heard a sound escape him, a mix between a moan and a hiss.’
   • ‘Murmured words escaped her lips, but were lost in his kiss.’
   • ‘Every so often a noise would escape her, a small sound, but nevertheless painful to hear.’
   • ‘My mouth opened as my brain caught up with what had happened; small noises of protest escaped me, but the words flying about my mind failed to form.’
   • ‘At one point the very beginning of a word escaped her lips, and she threw both hands to her mouth as if to stop anything further from leaking out.’
   • ‘The words escaped my lips with a tremble, magnified in an echo that swept through the room.’
   • ‘Despite my best efforts, a snort of laughter escaped me.’
   • ‘A bitter bark of laughter escaped her, utterly devoid of humor.’
   • ‘A scream finally escaped me and it all stopped as my lungs tore free of the rest of my chest.’
   • ‘Once the laugh escaped me, I noticed Toni glaring at me, and I tried not to laugh again.’

2with object Fail to be noticed or remembered by (someone)

3Computing
with object Interrupt (an operation) by means of the escape key.

1. 3.1Cause (a subsequent character or characters) to be interpreted differently.
   More example sentences

   • ‘This issue is addressed by properly escaping resolved DNS names.’
   • ‘Writing data to the database is more interesting because of the need to escape the data.’
   • ‘We're catering to a "need" to escape Web pages that our poor, humorless writing instilled in our audience in the first place.’

1An act of breaking free from confinement or control.

1. 1.1An act of avoiding something dangerous or unpleasant.
   ‘the baby was fine, but it was a lucky escape’
   More example sentences

   • ‘We opted for the bottled water and thanked our lucky stars for our narrow escape.’
   • ‘A Cranmore woman had a narrow escape when a bullet smashed through the front window of her car during last weekend's shooting.’
   • ‘An Ambleside man had a narrow escape after stumbling and sinking up to his armpits in a bog while walking on the Lake District fells, reports Paul Duncan.’
   • ‘A local man had a narrow escape from serious injury when the tractor he was driving was in collision with a lorry at Boggan Hill on Tuesday March 26.’
   • ‘On March 10, the Evening Press reported that four householders in the village had a narrow escape when a car skidded off the road and ploughed into two houses.’
   • ‘The first recorded sighting of the Loch Ness Monster dates from the 6th century when one of Saint Columba's monks had a narrow escape from its jaws.’
   • ‘More recently he had a narrow escape when a motorist suddenly changed lanes and crossed right in front of him, forcing him to swerve to avoid a collision.’
   • ‘A family of four from Pewsey has spoken of its narrow escape from the flooding disaster that devastated the Cornish village of Boscastle.’
   • ‘A dream holiday in the Caribbean turned into a narrow escape for a pair of friends from Trowbridge as they found themselves in the path of a hurricane.’
   • ‘Residents in a block of flats in Epsom had a narrow escape on Valentine's Day when a fire in a basement flat threatened to engulf the three-storey block.’
   • ‘A Kirkby Lonsdale woman had a narrow escape when lightning struck the shop she was working in as a violent thunderstorm engulfed the town.’
   • ‘Last year, Kevin had a narrow escape when a stunt went horribly wrong.’
   • ‘A lawyer and his family who had a narrow escape in the tsunami disaster are working in two hospitals to help the injured survivors.’
   • ‘An elderly couple had a narrow escape from an arson attack that would have ‘undoubtedly’ killed them.’
   • ‘A lorry driver and his colleague had a narrow escape when a brick hurled by youths struck just centimetres from the windscreen.’
   • ‘No serious injuries were reported but the car driver had a narrow escape.’
   • ‘Motorists had a narrow escape when a lorry carrying heavy scrap metal crashed into a bridge, shedding its load.’
   • ‘In York, one family had a narrow escape when a tree fell on their car.’
   • ‘A terrified gamekeeper had a lucky escape after he managed to sprint to safety from a charging hippopotamus.’
   • ‘Two people from Bradford had a miraculous escape after the vehicle in which they were travelling crashed through a fence.’
   Synonyms

   avoidance of, evasion of, dodging of, eluding of, circumvention of

   View synonyms
2. 1.2A means of escaping from somewhere.
   as modifier ‘he had planned his escape route’
   More example sentences

   • ‘I had an escape route planned out of town, and since I'd be driving my scooter I wouldn't have to worry about traffic.’
   • ‘Plan an escape route in case you are washed into the sea.’
   • ‘When rich nations lock poorer countries out of their markets in this way, they close the door to an escape route from poverty.’
   • ‘I then busied myself with the task of planning an escape route… You know, just in case.’
   • ‘I spend the next couple of hours planning my escape route.’
   • ‘He was beginning to be extra glad that Miles had planned an escape route.’
   • ‘The files were dated June 26, 2004, and included details about escape routes, evacuation plans and road closures.’
   • ‘The family members should plan two escape routes from each room and practise the plan until it is perfected.’
   • ‘Damn, I had escape routes planned from countries I'd never even been to.’
   • ‘In our plan, we had never devised an emergency escape route.’
   • ‘His escape route would no doubt be well planned, but that was of little consequence or interest to Bailey - they needed to stop the man before he made the shot.’
   • ‘All four women began life in poverty, from which prostitution offered the only escape.’
   • ‘Another explosion rocks the ship, and suddenly the escape capsule breaks free - flying to the surface.’
   • ‘There was no escape, no way out of this.’
   • ‘She knew she had me, that there was no escape and that the weekend that followed would be torment and humiliating.’
3. 1.3A garden plant or pet animal that has gone wild and (especially in plants) become naturalized.
   ‘it is not a native of Britain, though often occurring as an escape’
   More example sentences

   • ‘This tropical China native is a rare escape from cultivation.’
   • ‘It is most likely that the two trees are escapes or remnants from cultivation.’
   • ‘And Vaccinium macrocarpon (the cranberry) is now a casual escape on the Pacific coast.’
   • ‘Gleason and Cronquist list it as an escape in Vermont and New Hampshire.’

2A form of temporary distraction from reality or routine.

3A leakage of gas, liquid, or heat from a container.

4