escape
pronunciation
How to pronounce escape in British English:
UK [ɪˈskeɪp]
How to pronounce escape in American English:
US [ɪˈskeɪp]
-
- Noun:
- the act of escaping physically
- an inclination to retreat from unpleasant realities through diversion or fantasy
- the unwanted discharge of a fluid from some container
- 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
- nonperformance of something distasteful (as by deceit or trickery) that you are supposed to do
- an avoidance of danger or difficulty
- a means or way of escaping
- a plant originally cultivated but now growing wild
-
- Verb:
- run away from confinement
- fail to experience
- escape potentially unpleasant consequences; get away with a forbidden action
- be incomprehensible to; escape understanding by
- issue or leak, as from a small opening
- remove oneself from a familiar environment, usually for pleasure or diversion
- flee; take to one's heels; cut and run
Word Origin
- escape
- escape: [14] Originally, escape meant literally ‘take off one’s cloak’, and signified metaphorically ‘throw off restraint’ – much as we might say unbutton. The word appears to come ultimately from Vulgar Latin *excappāre, a hypothetical compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out, off’ and cappa ‘cloak’ (source of English cape). This passed into Old Northern French as escaper (immediate source of the English word), by which time the metaphor had progressed from ‘throwing off restraint’ to ‘gaining one’s liberty’.=> cape
- escape (v.)
- c. 1300, transitive and intransitive, "free oneself from confinement; extricate oneself from trouble; get away safely by flight (from battle, an enemy, etc.)," from Old North French escaper, Old French eschaper (12c., Modern French échapper), from Vulgar Latin *excappare, literally "get out of one's cape, leave a pursuer with just one's cape," from Latin ex- "out of" (see ex-) + Late Latin cappa "mantle" (see cap (n.)). Mid-14c., of things, "get or keep out of a person's grasp, elude (notice, perception, attention, etc.);" late 14c. as "avoid experiencing or suffering (something), avoid physical contact with; avoid (a consequence)." Related: Escaped; escaping.
- escape (n.)
- c. 1400, "an act of escaping, action of escaping," also "a possibility of escape," from escape (v.) or from Old French eschap; earlier eschap (c. 1300). Mental/emotional sense is from 1853. From 1810 as "a means of escape." The contractual escape clause recorded by 1939.
Example
- 1. Work activities also become an avenue of escape .
- 2. The first to escape have the best chance .
- 3. Even the most winged spirit cannot escape physical necessity .
- 4. It may have secret sites that escape unscathed .
- 5. But this huge shift was merely an escape hatch .