ESCA'PE, v.t. [L. capio, with a negative prefix, or from a word of the same family.]

1. Flight to shun danger or injury; the act of fleeing from danger. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm. Ps. iv.
2. A being passed without receiving injury, as when danger comes near a person, but passes by, and the person is passive. Every soldier who survives a battle has had such an escape.
3. Excuse; subterfuge; evasion. Ralegh.
4. In law, an evasion of legal restraint or the custody of the sherif, without due course of law. Escapes are voluntary or involuntary; voluntary, when an officer permits an offender or debtor to quit his custody, without warrant; and involuntary, or negligent, when an arrested person quits the custody of the officer against his will, and is not pursued forthwith and retaken before the pursuer hath lost sight of him.
5. Sally; flight; irregularity. [Little used.] Shak.
6. Oversight; mistake. [Little used, or improper.]

1. To flee, shun and be secure from danger; to avoid an evil. Escape for thy life to the mountain. Gen. xix.
2. To be passed without harm. The balls whistled by me, my comrades fell, but I escaped.

1. To flee from and avoid; to get out of the way; to shun; to obtain security from; to pass without harm; as, to escape danger. A small number that escape the sword, shall return. Jer. xliv. Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Pet. i.
2. To pass unobserved; to evade; as, the fact escaped my notice or observation.
3. To avoid the danger of; as, to escape the sea. Acts xxviii. Note. This verb is properly intransitive, and in strictness should be followed by from; but usage sanctions the omission of it.

1. To flee from and avoid; to be saved or exempt from; to shun; to obtain security from; as, to escape danger.
   
   
   "Sailors that escaped the wreck." Shak.
2. To flee, and become secure from danger; -- often followed by from or out of.
   
   

   Haste, for thy life escape, nor look behind(?)(?) Keble.

3. The act of fleeing from danger, of evading harm, or of avoiding notice; deliverance from injury or any evil; flight; as, an escape in battle; a narrow escape; also, the means of escape; as, a fire escape.
   
   

   I would hasten my escape from the windy storm. Ps. lv. 8.

4. A plant which has escaped from cultivation.
5. To avoid the notice of; to pass unobserved by; to evade; as, the fact escaped our attention.
   
   

   They escaped the search of the enemy. Ludlow.

6. To get clear from danger or evil of any form; to be passed without harm.
   
   

   Such heretics . . . would have been thought fortunate, if they escaped with life. Macaulay.

7. That which escapes attention or restraint; a mistake; an oversight; also, transgression.
   
   
   [Obs.]

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

8. To get free from that which confines or holds; -- used of persons or things; as, to escape from prison, from arrest, or from slavery; gas escapes from the pipes; electricity escapes from its conductors.
   
   

   To escape out of these meshes. Thackeray.

9. A sally.
   
   
   "Thousand escapes of wit." Shak.
10. The unlawful permission, by a jailer or other custodian, of a prisoner's departure from custody.
    
    

    * Escape is technically distinguishable from prison breach, which is the unlawful departure of the prisoner from custody, escape being the permission of the departure by the custodian, either by connivance or negligence. The term escape, however, is applied by some of the old authorities to a departure from custody by stratagem, or without force. Wharton.

11. An apophyge.
12. Leakage or outflow, as of steam or a liquid.
13. Leakage or loss of currents from the conducting wires, caused by defective insulation.
    
    

    Escape pipe (Steam Boilers), a pipe for carrying away steam that escapes through a safety valve. -- Escape valve (Steam Engine), a relief valve; a safety valve. See under Relief, and Safety. -- Escape wheel (Horol.), the wheel of an escapement.