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Escape   /ɪskˈeɪp/   Listen
verb
Escape  v. t.  (past & past part. escaped; pres. part. escaping)  
1.
To flee from and avoid; to be saved or exempt from; to shun; to obtain security from; as, to escape danger. "Sailors that escaped the wreck."
2.
To avoid the notice of; to pass unobserved by; to evade; as, the fact escaped our attention. "They escaped the search of the enemy."



Escape  v. i.  
1.
To flee, and become secure from danger; often followed by from or out of.
2.
To get clear from danger or evil of any form; to be passed without harm. "Such heretics... would have been thought fortunate, if they escaped with life."
3.
To get free from that which confines or holds; used of persons or things; as, to escape from prison, from arrest, or from slavery; gas escapes from the pipes; electricity escapes from its conductors. "To escape out of these meshes."



noun
Escape  n.  
1.
The act of fleeing from danger, of evading harm, or of avoiding notice; deliverance from injury or any evil; flight; as, an escape in battle; a narrow escape; also, the means of escape; as, a fire escape. "I would hasten my escape from the windy storm."
2.
That which escapes attention or restraint; a mistake; an oversight; also, transgression. (Obs.) "I should have been more accurate, and corrected all those former escapes."
3.
A sally. "Thousand escapes of wit."
4.
(Law) The unlawful permission, by a jailer or other custodian, of a prisoner's departure from custody.
5.
(Bot.) A plant which has escaped from cultivation. Note: Escape is technically distinguishable from prison breach, which is the unlawful departure of the prisoner from custody, escape being the permission of the departure by the custodian, either by connivance or negligence. The term escape, however, is applied by some of the old authorities to a departure from custody by stratagem, or without force.
6.
(Arch.) An apophyge.
7.
Leakage or outflow, as of steam or a liquid.
8.
(Elec.) Leakage or loss of currents from the conducting wires, caused by defective insulation.
Escape pipe (Steam Boilers), a pipe for carrying away steam that escapes through a safety valve.
Escape valve (Steam Engine), a relief valve; a safety valve. See under Relief, and Safety.
Escape wheel (Horol.), the wheel of an escapement.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Escape" Quotes from Famous Books



... "wicked old witch." The Bearnais had been biding his time—"crouching to spring": but that slap in the face set him on fire. He could no longer wait for the right moment. He decided to make the first moment the right one. His quick brain mapped out a plan of escape in which the sole flaw was that he must leave behind his brilliant bride. With eight or ten of his greatest, most loyal gentlemen, he arranged to hunt in the forest of Senlis; and he had shown himself so biddable, so boyish, that at first ...
— Everyman's Land • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson

... of the little building, rifle at the ready, only to see a scrambling figure, bent over, endeavoring to reach the top of the dam, where the smooth roadway ran from side to side of the great gorge. That way lay no escape. The sentry was across yonder, and would soon return. This way, toward the east, a fugitive must go if he would seek any point of emergence ...
— The Sagebrusher - A Story of the West • Emerson Hough

... injure any person, it would be impossible for thee to escape," replied Friend Hopper; "for thou art a hundred and twenty miles from the Capes, with hundreds of people on the wharf ...
— Isaac T. Hopper • L. Maria Child

... and one of them, a spirited young Highlander, Mr McIvor, put a brace of pistols into his belt and followed me on deck. I tried to escape being seen by the captain, but he caught sight of me, I was sure, though I stooped down and kept close to the ...
— Tales of the Sea - And of our Jack Tars • W.H.G. Kingston

... deposed to have heard it shriek at night. The surgeon who had examined it after death, said that it was emaciated as if from want of nourishment, and the body was covered with livid bruises. It seemed that one winter night the child had sought to escape—crept out into the back-yard—tried to scale the wall—fallen back exhausted, and been found at morning on the stones in a dying state. But though there was some evidence of cruelty, there was none of murder; ...
— Pausanias, the Spartan - The Haunted and the Haunters, An Unfinished Historical Romance • Lord Lytton


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