Search Result for "escape": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (8)

1. the act of escaping physically;
- Example: "he made his escape from the mental hospital"
- Example: "the canary escaped from its cage"
- Example: "his flight was an indication of his guilt"
[syn: escape, flight]

2. an inclination to retreat from unpleasant realities through diversion or fantasy;
- Example: "romantic novels were her escape from the stress of daily life"
- Example: "his alcohol problem was a form of escapism"
[syn: escape, escapism]

3. nonperformance of something distasteful (as by deceit or trickery) that you are supposed to do;
- Example: "his evasion of his clear duty was reprehensible"
- Example: "that escape from the consequences is possible but unattractive"
[syn: evasion, escape, dodging]

4. an avoidance of danger or difficulty;
- Example: "that was a narrow escape"

5. a means or way of escaping;
- Example: "hard work was his escape from worry"
- Example: "they installed a second hatch as an escape"
- Example: "their escape route"

6. a plant originally cultivated but now growing wild;

7. the discharge of a fluid from some container;
- Example: "they tried to stop the escape of gas from the damaged pipe"
- Example: "he had to clean up the leak"
[syn: escape, leak, leakage, outflow]

8. 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;
[syn: safety valve, relief valve, escape valve, escape cock, escape]


VERB (7)

1. run away from confinement;
- Example: "The convicted murderer escaped from a high security prison"
[syn: escape, get away, break loose]

2. fail to experience;
- Example: "Fortunately, I missed the hurricane"
[syn: miss, escape]

3. escape potentially unpleasant consequences; get away with a forbidden action;
- Example: "She gets away with murder!"
- Example: "I couldn't get out from under these responsibilities"
[syn: get off, get away, get by, get out, escape]

4. be incomprehensible to; escape understanding by;
- Example: "What you are seeing in him eludes me"
[syn: elude, escape]

5. remove oneself from a familiar environment, usually for pleasure or diversion;
- Example: "We escaped to our summer house for a few days"
- Example: "The president of the company never manages to get away during the summer"
[syn: escape, get away]

6. flee; take to one's heels; cut and run;
- Example: "If you see this man, run!"
- Example: "The burglars escaped before the police showed up"
[syn: scat, run, scarper, turn tail, lam, run away, hightail it, bunk, head for the hills, take to the woods, escape, fly the coop, break away]

7. issue or leak, as from a small opening;
- Example: "Gas escaped into the bedroom"


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Escape \Es*cape"\, v. i. 1. To flee, and become secure from danger; -- often followed by from or out of. [1913 Webster] Haste, for thy life escape, nor look behind?? --Keble. [1913 Webster] 2. To get clear from danger or evil of any form; to be passed without harm. [1913 Webster] Such heretics . . . would have been thought fortunate, if they escaped with life. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster] 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. [1913 Webster] To escape out of these meshes. --Thackeray. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Escape \Es*cape"\, 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. [1913 Webster] I would hasten my escape from the windy storm. --Ps. lv. 8. [1913 Webster] 2. That which escapes attention or restraint; a mistake; an oversight; also, transgression. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] I should have been more accurate, and corrected all those former escapes. --Burton. [1913 Webster] 3. A sally. "Thousand escapes of wit." --Shak. [1913 Webster] 4. (Law) The unlawful permission, by a jailer or other custodian, of a prisoner's departure from custody. [1913 Webster] 5. (Bot.) A plant which has escaped from cultivation. [Webster 1913 Suppl.] 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. --Wharton. [1913 Webster] 5. (Arch.) An apophyge. [1913 Webster] 6. Leakage or outflow, as of steam or a liquid. [1913 Webster] 7. (Elec.) Leakage or loss of currents from the conducting wires, caused by defective insulation. [1913 Webster] 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. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Escape \Es*cape"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Escaped; p. pr. & vb. n. Escaping.] [OE. escapen, eschapen, OF. escaper, eschaper, F. echapper, fr. LL. ex cappa out of one's cape or cloak; hence, to slip out of one's cape and escape. See 3d Cape, and cf. Scape, v.] 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." --Shak. [1913 Webster] 2. To avoid the notice of; to pass unobserved by; to evade; as, the fact escaped our attention. [1913 Webster] They escaped the search of the enemy. --Ludlow. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

escape n 1: the act of escaping physically; "he made his escape from the mental hospital"; "the canary escaped from its cage"; "his flight was an indication of his guilt" [syn: escape, flight] 2: an inclination to retreat from unpleasant realities through diversion or fantasy; "romantic novels were her escape from the stress of daily life"; "his alcohol problem was a form of escapism" [syn: escape, escapism] 3: nonperformance of something distasteful (as by deceit or trickery) that you are supposed to do; "his evasion of his clear duty was reprehensible"; "that escape from the consequences is possible but unattractive" [syn: evasion, escape, dodging] 4: an avoidance of danger or difficulty; "that was a narrow escape" 5: a means or way of escaping; "hard work was his escape from worry"; "they installed a second hatch as an escape"; "their escape route" 6: a plant originally cultivated but now growing wild 7: the discharge of a fluid from some container; "they tried to stop the escape of gas from the damaged pipe"; "he had to clean up the leak" [syn: escape, leak, leakage, outflow] 8: 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 [syn: safety valve, relief valve, escape valve, escape cock, escape] v 1: run away from confinement; "The convicted murderer escaped from a high security prison" [syn: escape, get away, break loose] 2: fail to experience; "Fortunately, I missed the hurricane" [syn: miss, escape] 3: escape potentially unpleasant consequences; get away with a forbidden action; "She gets away with murder!"; "I couldn't get out from under these responsibilities" [syn: get off, get away, get by, get out, escape] 4: be incomprehensible to; escape understanding by; "What you are seeing in him eludes me" [syn: elude, escape] 5: remove oneself from a familiar environment, usually for pleasure or diversion; "We escaped to our summer house for a few days"; "The president of the company never manages to get away during the summer" [syn: escape, get away] 6: flee; take to one's heels; cut and run; "If you see this man, run!"; "The burglars escaped before the police showed up" [syn: scat, run, scarper, turn tail, lam, run away, hightail it, bunk, head for the hills, take to the woods, escape, fly the coop, break away] 7: issue or leak, as from a small opening; "Gas escaped into the bedroom"
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

218 Moby Thesaurus words for "escape": abandonment, abscond, alienation, autism, autistic thinking, avenue, avoid, avoidance, avoidance mechanism, avoiding reaction, baffle, bail out, beg, blame-shifting, blow, blowhole, bolt, bow out, break, break away, break free, break jail, break loose, break out, breakout, bunk, channel, chute, circumvent, circumvention, clear out, compensation, cut and run, cut loose, cut out, debouch, decamp, decampment, decompensation, defense mechanism, deliverance, depart, departure, dereism, dereistic thinking, disappear, discharge, displacement, dissociation, distraction, ditch, diversion, dodge, dodging, door, double, drain, drainage, draining, duck, duck out, ducking, effluence, efflux, effluxion, egress, elope, elude, elusion, elusiveness, emanate, emotional insulation, emunctory, equivocation, escape into fantasy, escape mechanism, escape prison, escapism, eschewal, estuary, evacuation, evade, evasion, evasive action, evasiveness, exhaust, exit, exodus, fantasizing, fantasy, flee, flight, flit, floodgate, flume, fly, fly the coop, forbearance, forestalling, forestallment, get around, get away, get away from, get clear of, get free, get free of, get out, get out of, get quit of, get rid of, getaway, getting around, go on furlough, go on leave, going, hegira, isolation, issue, jailbreak, jink, jump, lam, leak, leakage, leaking, leave the scene, leaving, levant, liberation, loophole, make a getaway, make off, mosey, mystify, negativism, neutrality, nonintervention, noninvolvement, opening, out, outcome, outfall, outflow, outgate, outgo, outlet, outpouring, overcompensation, parting, passing, pore, port, prevention, projection, psychotaxis, puzzle, rationalization, recreation, refraining, release, relief, removal, resistance, retirement, retreat, run away, run off, runaround, sally port, scape, scram, seep, seepage, seeping, shake, shake off, shuffle out of, shunning, shunting off, shy, sidestep, sidestepping, sidetracking, skedaddle, skip, skirt, slip, slip away, slip off, slip out, slip the collar, sluice, sneak out, sociological adjustive reactions, spiracle, spout, stump, sublimation, substitution, take French leave, take leave, take off, tap, the runaround, throw off, vamoose, vanish, vent, ventage, venthole, vomitory, walkout, way out, weir, wish-fulfillment fantasy, wishful thinking, withdrawal, zigzag
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

ESCAPE An early system on the IBM 650. [Listed in CACM 2(5):16 (May 1959)]. (1995-01-05)
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

escape ESC (ESC) ASCII character 27. When sent by the user, escape is often used to abort execution or data entry. When sent by the computer it often starts an escape sequence. (1997-11-27)
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

ESCAPE. An escape is tho deliverance of a person who is lawfully imprisoned, out of prison, before such a person is entitled to such deliverance by law. 5 Mass. 310. 2. It will be proper to consider, first, what is a lawful imprisonment; and, secondly, the different kinds of escapes. 3. When a man is imprisoned in a proper place under the process of a court having jurisdiction in the case, he is lawfully imprisoned, notwithstanding the proceedings may be irregular; but if the court has not jurisdiction the imprisonment is unlawful, whether the process be regular or otherwise. Bac. Ab. Escape. in civil cases, A 1; 13 John. 378; 5 John. 89; 1 Cowen, 309 8 Cowen, 192; 1 Root, R. 288. 4. Escapes are divided into voluntary and negligent; actual or constructive; civil and criminal and escapes on mesne process and execution. 5.-1. A voluntary escape is the giving to a prisoner, voluntarily, any liberty not authorized by law. 5 Mass. 310; 2 Chipm. 11. Letting a prisoner confined under final process, out of prison for any, even the shortest time, is an escape, although he afterwards return; 2 Bl. Rep. 1048; 1 Roll. Ab. 806; and this may be, (as in the case of imprisonment under a ca. sa.) although an officer may accompany him. 3 Co. 44 a Plowd. 37; Hob. 202; 1 Bos. & Pull. 24 2 Bl. Rep. 1048. 6. The effect of a voluntary escape in a civil case, when the prisoner is confined under final process, is to discharge the debtor, so that he cannot be retaken by the sheriff; but he may be again arrested if he was confined only on mesne process. 2 T. R. 172; 2 Barn. & A. 56. And the plaintiff may retake the prisoner in either case. In a criminal case, on the contrary, the officer not only has a right to recapture his prisoner, but it is his duty to do so. 6 Hill, 344; Bac. Ab. Escape in civil cases, C. 7.-2. A negligent escape takes place when the prisoner goes at large, unlawfully, either because the building or prison in which he is confined is too weak to hold him, or because the keeper by carelessness lets him go out of prison. 8. The consequences of a negligent escape are not so favorable to the prisoner confined under final process, as they are when the escape is voluntary, because in this case, the prisoner is to blame. He may therefore be retaken. 9.-3. The escape is actual, when the prisoner in fact gets out of prison and unlawfully regains his liberty. 10.-4. A constructive escape takes place when the prisoner obtains more liberty than the law allows, although he still remains in confinement The following cases are examples of such escapes: When a man marries his prisoner. Plowd. 17; Bac. Ab. Escape, B 3. If an underkeeper be taken in execution, and delivered at the prison, and neither the sheriff nor any authorized person be there to receive him. 5 Mass. 310. And when the keeper of a prison made one of the prisoners confined for a debt a turnkey, and trusted him with the keys, it was held that this was a constructive escape. 2 Mason, 486. 11. Escapes in civil cases are, when the prisoner is charged in execution or on mesne process for a debt or duty, and not for a criminal offence, and he unlawfully gains his liberty. In this case, we have seen, the prisoner may be retaken, if the escape have not been voluntary; and that he may be retaken by the plaintiff when the escape has taken place without his fault, whether the defendant be confined in execution or not; and that the sheriff may retake the prisoner, who has been liberated by him, when he was not confined on final process. 12. Escapes in criminal cases take place when a person lawfully in prison, charged with a crime or under sentence, regains his liberty unlawfully. The prisoner being to blame for not submitting to the law, and in effecting his escape, may be retaken whether the escape was voluntary or not. And he may be indicted, fined and imprisoned for so escaping. See Prison. 13. Escape on mesne process is where the prisoner is not confined on final process, but on some other process issued in the course of the proceedings, and unlawfully obtains his liberty, such escape does not make the officer liable, provided that on the return day of the writ, the prisoner is forthcoming. 14. Escape on final process is when the prisoner obtains his liberty unlawfully while lawfully confined, and under an execution or other final decree. The officer is then, in general, liable to the plaintiff for the amount of the debt.
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

ESCAPE, WARRANT. A warrant issued in England against a person who being charged in custody in the king's bench or Fleet prison, in execution or mesne process, escapes and goes at large. Jacob's L. D. h.t.