• IPA: /ɪˈskeɪp/, /əˈskeɪp/, /ɛˈskeɪp/; (proscribed) IPAchar /ɪkˈskeɪp/

escape (escapes, present participle escaping; past and past participle escaped)

1. (intransitive) To get free; to free oneself.

   The prisoners escaped by jumping over a wall.

   The factory was evacuated after toxic gases escaped from a pipe.

2. (transitive) To avoid (any unpleasant person or thing); to elude, get away from.
   • c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene i]:

     sailors that escaped the wreck

   He only got a fine and so escaped going to jail.

   The children climbed out of the window to escape the fire.

3. (intransitive) To avoid capture; to get away with something, avoid punishment.

   Luckily, I escaped with only a fine.

4. (transitive) To elude the observation or notice of; to not be seen or remembered by.

   The name of the hotel escapes me at present.

   • They escaped the search of the enemy.

5. (transitive, computing) To cause (a single character, or all such characters in a string) to be interpreted literally, instead of with any special meaning it would usually have in the same context, often by prefixing with another character.
   • 1998 August, Tim Berners-Lee et al., [https://web.archive.org/web/20110317202540/http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2396.txt Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax (RFC 2396)], page 8:

     If the data for a URI component would conflict with the reserved purpose, then the conflicting data must be escaped before forming the URI.

   When using the "bash" shell, you can escape the ampersand character with a backslash.
   Brion escaped the double quote character on Windows by adding a second double quote within the literal.
6. (computing) To halt a program or command by pressing a key (such as the "Esc" key) or combination of keys.

• French: échapper, s'échapper
• German: entgehen
• Italian: scappare, fuggire, darsela a gambe
• Portuguese: escapar, fugir
• Russian: спаса́ться
• Spanish: escapar, liberarse, fugarse

• French: éviter
• German: entgehen, ausweichen
• Italian: evitare, eludere, svicolare, sgattaiolare
• Portuguese: evitar
• Russian: избега́ть
• Spanish: escapar, eludir

• French: tirer
• German: davonkommen
• Italian: fuggire, scappare, farla franca
• Portuguese: escapar
• Russian: ускольза́ть
• Spanish: escapar, salvar, evadir

• Italian: sviare, eludere
• Portuguese: iludir, desviar
• Spanish: escapar, esconder

• Russian: экранировать
• Spanish: escapar

• Spanish: cancelar, detener, abortar, tronar (Mexico)

escape (plural escapes)

1. The act of leaving a dangerous or unpleasant situation.

   The prisoners made their escape by digging a tunnel.

2. Leakage or outflow, as of steam or a liquid, or an electric current through defective insulation.
3. (computing) escape key
4. (programming) The text character represented by 27 (decimal) or 1B (hexadecimal).

   You forgot to insert an escape in the datastream.

5. (snooker) A successful shot from a snooker position.
6. (manufacturing) A defective product that is allowed to leave a manufacturing facility.
7. (obsolete) That which escapes attention or restraint; a mistake, oversight, or transgression.

   • I should have been more accurate, and corrected all those former escapes.

8. (obsolete) A sally.
   • c. 1603–1604, William Shakespeare, “Measvre for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act IV, scene i]:

     thousand escapes of wit

9. (architecture) An apophyge.

• French: évasion, échappatoire
• German: Flucht
• Portuguese: escapada, escape, escapatória
• Russian: побе́г
• Spanish: escapada, fuga, escape, escapatorio, liberación

• Portuguese: esc
• Russian: эске́йп
• Spanish: escape

• Spanish: escape