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EVASION
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of physically escaping from something (an opponent or a pursuer or an unpleasant situation) by some adroit maneuver
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("evasion" is a kind of...):
escape; flight (the act of escaping physically)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "evasion"):
eluding; elusion; slip (the act of avoiding capture (especially by cunning))
evasive action; maneuver; manoeuvre (an action aimed at evading an opponent)
dodge (a quick evasive movement)
Derivation:
evade (escape, either physically or mentally)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Nonperformance of something distasteful (as by deceit or trickery) that you are supposed to do
Example:
that escape from the consequences is possible but unattractive
Synonyms:
dodging; escape; evasion
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("evasion" is a kind of...):
carelessness; neglect; negligence; nonperformance (failure to act with the prudence that a reasonable person would exercise under the same circumstances)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "evasion"):
escape mechanism (a form of behavior that evades unpleasant realities)
malingering; skulking (evading duty or work by pretending to be incapacitated)
goldbricking; goofing off; shirking; slacking; soldiering (the evasion of work or duty)
circumvention (the act of evading by going around)
Derivation:
evade (avoid or try to avoid fulfilling, answering, or performing (duties, questions, or issues))
Sense 3
Meaning:
The deliberate act of failing to pay money
Example:
he was indicted for nonpayment
Synonyms:
evasion; nonpayment
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("evasion" is a kind of...):
commerce; commercialism; mercantilism (transactions (sales and purchases) having the objective of supplying commodities (goods and services))
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "evasion"):
tax evasion (the deliberate failure to pay taxes (usually by making a false report))
Sense 4
Meaning:
A statement that is not literally false but that cleverly avoids an unpleasant truth
Synonyms:
equivocation; evasion
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("evasion" is a kind of...):
deceit; deception; misrepresentation (a misleading falsehood)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "evasion"):
circumlocution; indirect expression (an indirect way of expressing something)
doublespeak (any language that pretends to communicate but actually does not)
hedge; hedging (an intentionally noncommittal or ambiguous statement)
cavil; quibble; quiddity (an evasion of the point of an argument by raising irrelevant distinctions or objections)
Context examples:
Sir Thomas gave up the point, foiled by her evasions, disarmed by her flattery; and was obliged to rest satisfied with the conviction that where the present pleasure of those she loved was at stake, her kindness did sometimes overpower her judgment.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
After much debate, they concluded unanimously, that I was only relplum scalcath, which is interpreted literally lusus naturæ; a determination exactly agreeable to the modern philosophy of Europe, whose professors, disdaining the old evasion of occult causes, whereby the followers of Aristotle endeavoured in vain to disguise their ignorance, have invented this wonderful solution of all difficulties, to the unspeakable advancement of human knowledge.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
A little overwhelmed, I began the generalized evasions which that question deserves.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
