escapade

From French escapade (“the act of escaping; a trick”), from Old Spanish escapada, from escapar (“to escape”), from Vulgar Latin *excappō (“to escape”).

• enPR: ĕs'kə-pād', IPA^(key): /ˈɛskəˌpeɪd/

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• Rhymes: -eɪd

escapade (plural escapades)

1. A daring or adventurous act; an undertaking which goes against convention.
   • 1724, Charles Johnson, “Of Captain Howel Davis, and His Crew”, in A General History of the Pyrates, […], 2nd edition, London: Printed for, and sold by T. Warner, […], OCLC 2276353, page 202:

     The Manner of living among the Portugueze here is, with the utmost Frugality and Temperance. […] The beſt of them (excepting the Governor now and then) neither pay nor receive any Viſits of Eſcapade or Recreation; […]

   • 1816, Sir Walter Scott, The Antiquary - Volume II, ch. 9:

     [Nobody] stood more confounded than Oldbuck at this sudden escapade of his nephew. "Is the devil in him," was his first exclamation, "to go to disturb the brute?"

   • 1918, P. G. Wodehouse, Piccadilly Jim, ch. 1:

     He is always doing something to make himself notorious. There was that breach-of-promise case, and that fight at the political meeting, and his escapades at Monte Carlo.

   • 2011 March 4, Richard Corliss, "The Adjustment Bureau" (film review), Time (retrieved 23 March 2014):

     He seems on the verge of winning the New York Senate election when the New York Post runs a photo of David’s exposed butt in a mooning escapade from his college days.

escapade

1. second-person plural imperative of escapar