evacuate
pronunciation
How to pronounce evacuate in British English:
UK [ɪˈvækjueɪt]
How to pronounce evacuate in American English:
US [ɪˈvækjueɪt]
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- Verb:
- move out of an unsafe location into safety
- empty completely
- move people from their homes or country
- create a vacuum in (a bulb, flask, reaction vessel, etc.)
- excrete or discharge from the body
Word Origin
- evacuate (v.)
- 1520s (trans.), from Latin evacuatus, past participle of evacuare "to empty, make void, nullify," used by Pliny in reference to the bowels, used figuratively in Late Latin for "clear out;" from assimilated form of ex- "out" (see ex-) + vacuus "empty" (see vacuum). Earliest sense in English is medical. Military use is by 1710. Meaning "remove inhabitants to safer ground" is from 1934. Intransitive sense is from 1630s; of civilian persons by 1900. Replaced Middle English evacuen "draw off or expel (humors) from the body" (c. 1400). Related: Evacuated; evacuating.
Example
- 1. Residents in oregon and northern california have been advised to evacuate low-lying areas .
- 2. Ten months later , residents had to evacuate again , this time to flee floods .
- 3. But a chinese guided-missile frigate and military transport aircraft helped evacuate chinese nationals from libya last year .
- 4. Fears of imminent flooding promoted panicky scenes on saturday after the government warned people to evacuate several vulnerable areas .
- 5. Amid international concern about the security situation , governments scrambled to make arrangements to evacuate expatriates and hundreds of refugees crossed the border into egypt .