Meaning & use
eluding
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“eluding” is a form of “elude”. See that entry for the full set of meanings.
Meanings
verbtransitive
Getting away from someone or something, or staying out of reach, usually through speed, skill or cleverness.
Grammar: Always takes an object: the thief kept eluding the police.
Patterns
- elude someone
- elude capture
- elude detection
The fox kept eluding the hunters by doubling back through the stream.
For three weeks the burglar succeeded in eluding the police.
The cheetah has no trouble eluding most predators on open ground.
verbtransitivefigurative
Failing to be remembered, understood or achieved by someone, so that it stays just out of their grasp.
Grammar: The thing that is hard to grasp is the subject and the person is the object: the answer keeps eluding me.
Patterns
- something eludes someone
- something eludes understanding
The name of the song has been eluding me all morning.
A clear explanation is still eluding the scientists studying the strange signal.
Success kept eluding the small team, despite years of effort.
Word forms
| third person singular | eludes |
|---|---|
| past tense | eluded |
| past participle | eluded |
| -ing form | eluding |
Common combinations
- eluding capture
- The escaped horse spent days eluding capture in the hills.
- eluding detection
- The virus is eluding detection by the standard tests.
- eluding the police
- He ended up eluding the police for nearly a month.
- eluding understanding
- The poem's final line is still eluding understanding for most readers.
- keep eluding someone
- Sleep keeps eluding me when I have a deadline.
Synonyms and how they differ
- evading
- 'Evading' is more often about dodging a duty or a question as well as a pursuer, while 'eluding' stresses slipping away cleverly.
- escaping
- 'Escaping' is the plain word for getting free, whereas 'eluding' implies you stayed one step ahead rather than breaking out of confinement.
- dodging
- 'Dodging' is more casual and suggests a quick sidestep of a single blow or problem.
- outwitting
- 'Outwitting' stresses beating an opponent with cleverness, whereas 'eluding' stresses staying out of their reach, whether by wit or speed.
Opposites
Word family
- elude verb
- the base verb meaning to escape or evade
- elusive adjective
- hard to find, catch or define
- elusively adverb
- in a way that is hard to catch or pin down
- elusiveness noun
- the quality of being hard to catch or grasp
- elusion noun
- the act of eluding; rare and formal
Commonly confused: eluding or alluding? eluding or deluding?
eluding vs alluding
'Alluding' means mentioning something indirectly, as in 'alluding to her illness', and has nothing to do with escaping.
eluding vs deluding
'Deluding' means tricking someone into believing something false, which is different from slipping away.
Practice
For hours the fox managed to ___ the hunters by doubling back through the stream.
Choose one answer.
'Elude' means to escape from a pursuer. 'Delude' (to trick) and 'allude' (to hint at) sound similar but do not mean escaping.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “eluding”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.