From Middle English escapen, from Anglo-Norman - and fro-nor escaper ( = Old French eschaper, modern French échapper), from Vulgar Latin *excappāre, literally "get out of one's cape, leave a pursuer with just one's cape," from Latin ex- + Late Latin cappa.

• (RP) IPA: /ɪˈskeɪp/, /ɪk-/
• (America) IPA: /ɪˈskeɪp/, /ə-/, /ɛ-/, /ɛk-/

escape (escapes, present participle escaping; simple 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 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [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.

   • c. 1698-1699 (year published) Edmund Ludlow, Memoirs

     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.

• break loose

• French: échapper, s'échapper, fuir
• 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

• French: échapper (à quelqu'un)
• Italian: sviare, eludere
• Portuguese: iludir, desviar, fugir
• Spanish: escapar, esconder

• Russian: экрани́ровать
• 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. Something that has escaped; an escapee.
4. A holiday, viewed as time away from the vicissitudes of life.
5. (computing) escape key
6. (programming) The text character represented by 27 (decimal) or 1B (hexadecimal).

   You forgot to insert an escape in the datastream.

7. (snooker) A successful shot from a snooker position.
8. (manufacturing) A defective product that is allowed to leave a manufacturing facility.
9. (obsolete) That which escapes attention or restraint; a mistake, oversight, or transgression.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC ↗:

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

10. (obsolete) A sally.
    • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene i]:

      thousand escapes of wit

11. (architecture) An apophyge.

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

• Portuguese: esc
• Russian: эскейп
• Spanish: escape

• Spanish: escape