evade

Language: en

🇬🇧 /ɪˈveɪd/ 🇺🇸 /ɪˈveɪd/

📖 Definitions

  1. verb
    To escape or avoid something, especially through cleverness, trickery, or dexterity.; To avoid giving a direct or honest answer; to be deliberately vague or ambiguous.; To avoid fulfilling a duty, obligation, or responsibility.; To elude understanding or comprehension; to remain beyond grasp.

🔗 Details

Word forms

3rd sing.: evades Past: evaded Past part.: evaded Pres part.: evading

Collocations

evade taxesevade captureevade detectionevade responsibilityevade the questionevade the law

Derivatives

evasionevasiveevasivelyevasiveness

Synonyms

avoidescapeeludedodgesidestepcircumvent

Antonyms

confrontfaceencounter

Commonly confused

avoid
EN: 'Avoid' is a general term for keeping away from something; 'evade' implies cleverness or trickery in escaping, often with a negative connotation.
elude
EN: 'Elude' emphasizes the skill or difficulty of the escape itself; 'evade' focuses more on the deliberate act of avoiding.
invade
EN: 'Invade' means to enter forcefully; 'evade' means to escape or avoid — they share a Latin root but have opposite directional meanings.

Spelling tips

EN: The noun form is 'evasion' (not *'evation'), and the adjective is 'evasive' — note the shift from 'd' to 's' in derivatives.

💬 Examples

  1. The suspect managed to evade the police by hiding in an abandoned warehouse.

  2. The politician evaded the journalist's question about his financial dealings.

  3. He was accused of evading his tax obligations for several years.

  4. The meaning of the ancient text continues to evade scholars.