es•cape
Pronunciation: (i-skāp'), [key]
— v., n., adj. -caped, -cap•ing,
—v.i.
- to slip or get away, as from confinement or restraint; gain or regain liberty: to escape from jail.
- to slip away from pursuit or peril; avoid capture, punishment, or any threatened evil.
- to issue from a confining enclosure, as a fluid.
- to slip away; fade: The words escaped from memory.
- (of an originally cultivated plant) to grow wild.
- (of a rocket, molecule, etc.) to achieve escape velocity.
—v.t.
- to slip away from or elude (pursuers, captors, etc.): He escaped the police.
- to succeed in avoiding (any threatened or possible danger or evil): She escaped capture.
- to elude (one's memory, notice, search, etc.).
- to fail to be noticed or recollected by (a person): Her reply escapes me.
- (of a sound or utterance) to slip from or be expressed by (a person, one's lips, etc.) inadvertently.
—n.
- an act or instance of escaping.
- the fact of having escaped.
- a means of escaping: We used the tunnel as an escape.
- avoidance of reality: She reads mystery stories as an escape.
- leakage, as of water or gas, from a pipe or storage container.
- a plant that originated in cultivated stock and is now growing wild.
- the act of achieving escape velocity.
- a key (frequently labeled ESC) found on microcomputer keyboards and used for any of various functions, as to interrupt a command or move from one part of a program to another.
—adj.
- for or providing an escape: an escape route.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.