evade Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb avoid or try to avoid fulfilling, answering, or performing (duties, questions, or issues)
    dodge; fudge; sidestep; parry; elude; skirt; duck; hedge; circumvent; put off.
    • He dodged the issue
    • she skirted the problem
    • They tend to evade their responsibilities
    • he evaded the questions skillfully
  2. verb escape, either physically or mentally
    elude; bilk.
    • The thief eluded the police
    • This difficult idea seems to evade her
    • The event evades explanation
  3. verb practice evasion
    • This man always hesitates and evades
  4. verb use cunning or deceit to escape or avoid
    • The con man always evades

WordNet

E*vade" transitive verb
Etymology
L. evadere, evasum, e out + vadere to go, walk: cf. F. s'évader. See Wade.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Evaded; present participle & verbal noun Evading
Definitions
  1. To get away from by artifice; to avoid by dexterity, subterfuge, address, or ingenuity; to elude; to escape from cleverly; as, to evade a blow, a pursuer, a punishment; to evade the force of an argument.
    The heathen had a method, more truly their own, of evading the Christian miracles. Trench.
E*vade" transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To escape; to slip away; -- sometimes with from. "Evading from perils." Bacon.
    Unarmed they might Have easily, as spirits evaded swift By quick contraction or remove. Milton.
  2. To attempt to escape; to practice artifice or sophistry, for the purpose of eluding.
    The ministers of God are not to evade and take refuge any of these . . . ways. South.
    Syn>- To equivocate; shuffle. See Prevaricate.

Webster 1913