Library / English Dictionary

EVADE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Avoid or try to avoid fulfilling, answering, or performing (duties, questions, or issues)

Example:

he evaded the questions skillfully

Synonyms:

circumvent; dodge; duck; elude; evade; fudge; hedge; parry; put off; sidestep; skirt

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "evade" is one way to...):

avoid (stay clear from; keep away from; keep out of the way of someone or something)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "evade"):

beg (dodge, avoid answering, or take for granted)

quibble (evade the truth of a point or question by raising irrelevant objections)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

evasion (nonperformance of something distasteful (as by deceit or trickery) that you are supposed to do)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Use cunning or deceit to escape or avoid

Example:

The con man always evades

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "evade" is one way to...):

escape; get away; get by; get off; get out (escape potentially unpleasant consequences; get away with a forbidden action)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 3

Meaning:

Escape, either physically or mentally

Example:

The event evades explanation

Synonyms:

bilk; elude; evade

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "evade" is one way to...):

break loose; escape; get away (run away from confinement)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

evasion (the act of physically escaping from something (an opponent or a pursuer or an unpleasant situation) by some adroit maneuver)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Practice evasion

Example:

This man always hesitates and evades

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "evade" is one way to...):

act; move (perform an action, or work out or perform (an action))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

evasive (deliberately vague or ambiguous)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Cancer evades the immune system by various means, including immune checkpoint inhibitors, which apply the brake on the immune response against a tumor.

(Immune Stimulant Molecule Protects against Cancer Development, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

But White Fang was here, there, and everywhere, always evading and eluding, and always leaping in and slashing with his fangs and leaping out again in time to escape punishment.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

It had not been necessary, and the few occasions of its being possible for her to go to the Hall she had contrived to evade and escape from.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Nor did he know that the Transcontinental was the sole livelihood of the editor and the business manager, and that they could wring their livelihood out of it only by moving to escape paying rent and by never paying any bill they could evade.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

A promise of secrecy was of course very dutifully given, but it could not be kept without difficulty; for the curiosity excited by his long absence burst forth in such very direct questions on his return as required some ingenuity to evade, and he was at the same time exercising great self-denial, for he was longing to publish his prosperous love.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Up the blood rushed to his face; forth flashed the fire from his eyes; erect he sprang; he held his arms out; but I evaded the embrace, and at once quitted the room.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“You are not busy, Mr. Heep?” said Traddles, whose eye the cunning red eye accidentally caught, as it at once scrutinized and evaded us.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I had some shadowy idea of endeavouring to evade the question, by replying that I thought him a very nice gentleman; but my aunt was not to be so put off, for she laid her work down in her lap, and said, folding her hands upon it: Come! Your sister Betsey Trotwood would have told me what she thought of anyone, directly.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“Stay there!” she said, “or I'll proclaim you to the house, and the whole street! If you try to evade me, I'll stop you, if it's by the hair, and raise the very stones against you!”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)