escape
- 01 B1 Intermediate
v.to get away from a place where you are being held, like a prison or a cage.
v.to break free from confinement or control. Intransitive in its primary physical sense.
Simple“The tiger managed to escape from its enclosure during the storm.”
In context“Several prisoners attempted to escape through a ventilation shaft, but they were apprehended before reaching the outer perimeter.”
- 02 B1 Intermediate
v.to avoid a dangerous or unpleasant situation.
v.to elude or avoid an undesirable outcome or person. Transitive, taking the avoided entity as a direct object.
Simple“She was lucky to escape the car accident without any injuries.”
In context“The company narrowly escaped bankruptcy by securing a last-minute loan from a private equity firm.”
- 03 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.when you cannot remember a name or a fact at the moment you need it.
v.to elude the memory or notice of someone. The subject is typically the forgotten information, and the object is the person.
Simple“I know her face well, but her name escapes me right now.”
In context“The subtle nuances of the contract seemed to escape the junior lawyer's attention during the initial review.”
- 04 C1 Advanced
v.to tell a computer to treat a special character as a normal letter.
v.to use a specific character to signal that the following character should be interpreted literally rather than as a command.
Simple“You need to escape the quote marks in your code so it doesn't crash.”
In context“The developer had to escape the backslash characters within the string to ensure the file path was parsed correctly by the operating system.”
UsageUsually involves prefixing a character with a backslash.
- 05 B1 Intermediate
n.the act of getting away from a dangerous or bad situation.
n.the act or an instance of breaking free from confinement or danger.
Simple“The hikers made a narrow escape when the forest fire started.”
In context“The daring escape from the high-security facility became the lead story on every national news network that evening.”
Antonyms - 06 B2 Upper Intermediate
n.a way to forget about your problems or your busy life for a while.
n.a distraction or diversion from reality or routine. Often used in the context of entertainment or travel.
Simple“Reading science fiction is a great escape from my stressful job.”
In context“For many city dwellers, a weekend in the mountains provides a necessary escape from the relentless pace of urban life.”
Synonyms - 07 C1 Advanced
n.when a gas or liquid accidentally flows out of a container.
n.the physical leakage or outflow of a substance from a container or system.
Simple“The technicians detected a small escape of gas from the main pipe.”
In context“The safety valve is designed to allow the controlled escape of steam if the internal pressure exceeds a specific threshold.”
From Middle English escapen, from Anglo-Norman and Old Northern French escaper ( = Old French eschaper, modern French échapper), from Vulgar Latin *excappāre (“to escape a garment, get out of one's clothing”, literally “to free oneself from one's cape”), from Latin ex- (“out”) + Late Latin cappa (“cape, cloak”). Cognate with escapade. Also doublet of scape.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.