flee
English
Etymology
From Old English flēon, from Proto-Germanic *fleuhaną, from Proto-Indo-European *plewk-, *plew- (“to fly, flow, run”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /fliː/
- Rhymes: -iː
Audio (US) (file) - Homophone: flea
Verb
flee (third-person singular simple present flees, present participle fleeing, simple past and past participle fled)
- (intransitive) To run away; to escape.
- The prisoner tried to flee, but was caught by the guards.
- 1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./4/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
- As they turned into Hertford Street they startled a robin from the poet's head on a barren fountain, and he fled away with a cameo note.
- (transitive) To escape from.
- (intransitive) To disappear quickly; to vanish.
- Ethereal products flee once freely exposed to air.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
to run away; to escape
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to escape from
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to disappear quickly
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Middle English
Scots
Etymology
From Middle English flye, from Old English flȳġe, flēoge, from Proto-Germanic *fleugǭ. Compare English fly, Dutch vlieg, German Fliege.
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