Meaning & use
escape
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Meanings
verbtransitive or intransitive
To get away from a place where you were held or where you were in danger.
Grammar: With from for a place you leave: escape from prison; with a direct object for a danger: escape injury.
Patterns
- escape from somewhere
- escape something
- escape to somewhere
Two prisoners escaped from the jail last night.
The family escaped the fire through a window.
She escaped to the countryside for the weekend.
verbtransitive
To avoid something unpleasant such as punishment or harm.
Grammar: Takes an object naming the unpleasant thing: escape punishment.
Patterns
- escape something
- narrowly escape something
He escaped punishment because of a mistake in the paperwork.
They narrowly escaped serious injury.
No part of the city escaped the flooding.
verbtransitive or intransitive
To be forgotten or unnoticed by someone, or to slip out of a container or the mouth.
Grammar: Subject is the thing that slips away: the name escapes me, gas escaped.
Patterns
- something escapes someone
- something escapes from something
Her name escapes me at the moment.
Gas escaped from a broken pipe.
A sigh escaped his lips.
nouncountable
An act of getting free from danger or confinement.
Grammar: Often a narrow escape or a lucky escape.
Patterns
- an escape from something
- make an escape
The prisoners made a daring escape at night.
We had a narrow escape on the icy road.
The fire escape was blocked.
nouncountable or uncountable
Something that lets you forget your troubles for a while, such as a hobby or entertainment.
Grammar: Often a form of escape.
Patterns
- an escape from something
Reading was her escape from a stressful job.
The cabin was a welcome escape from the city.
Video games became a form of escape for him.
Word forms
| third person singular | escapes |
|---|---|
| past tense | escaped |
| past participle | escaped |
| -ing form | escaping |
| plural | escapes |
Common combinations
- narrow escape
- It was a narrow escape; the car missed us by inches.
- escape from prison
- He planned to escape from prison.
- escape detection
- The small error escaped detection for years.
- fire escape
- A metal fire escape ran down the building.
- escape the heat
- We went to the beach to escape the heat.
- escape route
- The hikers checked the escape route.
Synonyms and how they differ
- flee
- Flee stresses running away from danger quickly, while escape stresses getting free.
- avoid
- Avoid means to keep away from something on purpose, but escape suggests a lucky or narrow outcome.
- break out
- Break out is specifically about leaving a prison or confined area by force.
- get away
- Get away is more informal and can also mean taking a vacation.
Opposites
Word family
- escapee noun
- a person who has escaped
- escapism noun
- avoiding real life through fantasy or entertainment
- escapist adjective
- offering escape from reality
- escapade noun
- an exciting, risky adventure
- inescapable adjective
- impossible to avoid
Commonly confused: escape or scape?
escape vs scape
Scape is not a standard word on its own and is only found in compounds such as landscape. Escape is spelled with an initial e.
Practice
Which sentence is correct?
Choose one answer.
Escape can take a direct object to mean avoid being caught by someone. The other prepositions change the meaning wrongly.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “escape”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.