Library / English Dictionary

FLEE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: fled   

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Run away quickly

Example:

He threw down his gun and fled

Synonyms:

flee; fly; take flight

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "flee" is one way to...):

break away; bunk; escape; fly the coop; head for the hills; hightail it; lam; run; run away; scarper; scat; take to the woods; turn tail (flee; take to one's heels; cut and run)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "flee"):

break (make a rupture in the ranks of the enemy or one's own by quitting or fleeing)

stampede (run away in a stampede)

abscond; absquatulate; bolt; decamp; go off; make off; run off (run away; usually includes taking something or somebody along)

elope; run off (run away secretly with one's beloved)

break loose; escape; get away (run away from confinement)

high-tail; hightail (retreat at full speed)

defect; desert (desert (a cause, a country or an army), often in order to join the opposing cause, country, or army)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

fleer (someone who flees from an uncongenial situation)

flight (the act of escaping physically)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The mildness of my nature had fled, and all within me was turned to gall and bitterness.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

When the animals saw that, they thought all was lost, and began to flee, each into his hole, and the birds had won the battle.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

He fled to his stateroom, where he lurked until the steamer was clear of the dock.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The girl fled away to the house, but as she ran she looked back and saw that the stranger was leaning through the window.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then I should not have been as now, a mere fleeing sheep before this butcher.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

He turned and fled away, not from the hurt of the fire, but from the laughter that sank even deeper, and hurt in the spirit of him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

It was the occasion when he was accused of slaying his younger brother and fled from the country.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The instant Laurie's step was heard in the hall, Meg fled into the study, and Mrs. March received the culprit alone.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I hear a nightingale warbling in a wood half a mile off; no moving form is visible, no coming step audible; but that perfume increases: I must flee.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Madman that I was to linger so long before I fled!

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)