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Definition of "escape" []

  • To break loose from confinement; get free: escape from jail. (verb-intransitive)
  • To issue from confinement or an enclosure; leak or seep out: Gas was escaping from the vent. (verb-intransitive)
  • To avoid a serious or unwanted outcome: escaped from the accident with their lives. (verb-intransitive)
  • Botany To become established in the wild. Used of a cultivated species. (verb-intransitive)
  • Computer Science To interrupt a command, exit a program, or change levels within a program by using a key, combination of keys, or key sequence. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "escape" in a sentence
  • "This escape is a perfect example why I could never take the show that seriously."
  • "What ensues as he tries to escape is total paranoia, as he never knows who he can trust and the shadowy controllers of the island play hell with his perceptions of time and people."
  • "The velocity the ball must have to escape is known as the escape velocity."