# escaped

/ɪˈskeɪpt/ (US) · /ɛskˈeɪpt/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/escaped
Updated: 2026-06-19

## Senses

### 2. avoided danger

verb · CEFR B1

to have avoided a bad situation or an accident.

For teachers: to have successfully avoided a dangerous, unpleasant, or fatal situation.

- The driver escaped the crash with only a few small scratches.
- The hikers narrowly escaped the avalanche by seeking shelter behind a massive granite outcrop just as the snow began to fall.

### 3. forgotten or unnoticed

verb · CEFR B2

when you cannot remember a name or fact, or when you do not notice something.

For teachers: to have eluded one's memory or failed to be noticed by one's senses.

- I knew her face well, but her name escaped me for a moment.
- The subtle error in the final paragraph escaped the editor's notice despite three separate rounds of proofreading.

### 4. currently free

adjective · CEFR B1

describing a person or animal that has gotten free from a cage or prison.

For teachers: functioning as a participial adjective to describe an entity that is currently at large after fleeing confinement.

- The police are still looking for the escaped prisoner in the woods.
- Local residents were warned to stay indoors while animal control officers tracked the escaped tiger through the suburban parkland.

## Examples

- The bird escaped from its cage and flew away.
- The hikers narrowly escaped the forest fire by driving to the lake before the roads closed.
- While the protagonist physically escaped the prison walls, the narrative suggests he could never truly flee the psychological trauma of his long years in solitary confinement.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.