v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Escaped p. pr. & vb. n. Escaping. ] [ OE. escapen, eschapen, OF. escaper, eschaper, F. echapper, fr. LL. ex cappa out of one's cape or cloak; hence, to slip out of one's cape and escape. See 3d Cape, and cf. Scape, v. ] 1. To flee from and avoid; to be saved or exempt from; to shun; to obtain security from; as, to escape danger. “Sailors that escaped the wreck.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To avoid the notice of; to pass unobserved by; to evade; as, the fact escaped our attention. [ 1913 Webster ]

They escaped the search of the enemy. Ludlow. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The act of fleeing from danger, of evading harm, or of avoiding notice; deliverance from injury or any evil; flight; as, an escape in battle; a narrow escape; also, the means of escape; as, a fire escape. [ 1913 Webster ]

I would hasten my escape from the windy storm. Ps. lv. 8. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. That which escapes attention or restraint; a mistake; an oversight; also, transgression. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

I should have been more accurate, and corrected all those former escapes. Burton. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A sally. “Thousand escapes of wit.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Law) The unlawful permission, by a jailer or other custodian, of a prisoner's departure from custody. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Bot.) A plant which has escaped from cultivation. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

☞ Escape is technically distinguishable from prison breach, which is the unlawful departure of the prisoner from custody, escape being the permission of the departure by the custodian, either by connivance or negligence. The term escape, however, is applied by some of the old authorities to a departure from custody by stratagem, or without force. Wharton. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Arch.) An apophyge. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. Leakage or outflow, as of steam or a liquid. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. (Elec.) Leakage or loss of currents from the conducting wires, caused by defective insulation. [ 1913 Webster ]

Escape pipe (Steam Boilers), a pipe for carrying away steam that escapes through a safety valve. --
Escape valve (Steam Engine), a relief valve; a safety valve. See under Relief, and Safety. --
Escape wheel (Horol.), the wheel of an escapement. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To flee, and become secure from danger; -- often followed by from or out of. [ 1913 Webster ]

Haste, for thy life escape, nor look behind&unr_;&unr_; Keble. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To get clear from danger or evil of any form; to be passed without harm. [ 1913 Webster ]

Such heretics . . . would have been thought fortunate, if they escaped with life. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To get free from that which confines or holds; -- used of persons or things; as, to escape from prison, from arrest, or from slavery; gas escapes from the pipes; electricity escapes from its conductors. [ 1913 Webster ]

To escape out of these meshes. Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. échappement. See Escape. ] 1. The act of escaping; escape. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Way of escape; vent. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

An escapement for youthful high spirits. G. Eliot. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The contrivance in a timepiece which connects the train of wheel work with the pendulum or balance, giving to the latter the impulse by which it is kept in vibration; -- so called because it allows a tooth to escape from a pallet at each vibration. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Escapements are of several kinds, as the vertical, or verge, or crown, escapement, formerly used in watches, in which two pallets on the balance arbor engage with a crown wheel; the anchor escapement, in which an anchor-shaped piece carries the pallets; -- used in common clocks (both are called recoil escapements, from the recoil of the escape wheel at each vibration); the cylinder escapement, having an open-sided hollow cylinder on the balance arbor to control the escape wheel; the duplex escapement, having two sets of teeth on the wheel; the lever escapement, which is a kind of detached escapement, because the pallets are on a lever so arranged that the balance which vibrates it is detached during the greater part of its vibration and thus swings more freely; the detent escapement, used in chronometers; the remontoir escapement, in which the escape wheel is driven by an independent spring or weight wound up at intervals by the clock train, -- sometimes used in astronomical clocks. When the shape of an escape-wheel tooth is such that it falls dead on the pallet without recoil, it forms a deadbeat escapement. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who escapes. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Physics) The minimum velocity at which an object must be moving in order for it to overcome the gravitational attraction of a massive celestial body, such as the earth or the sun, and escape beyond its gravitational field into free space. The velocity is calculated as though attained instantaneously at the surface of the celestial body, and is pointed directly away from its center, and neglecting effects of atmospheric friction. Rockets, which accelerate gradually and are moving rapidly at a high altitude when their fuel is exhausted or their engines shut off, may escape even if moving slightly slower at that point than the surface escape velocity. Compare orbital velocity. [ PJC ]

☞ The escape velocity at the surface of the earth is 11.2 km/sec (25, 100 miles per hour), at the moon's surface is 2.4 km/sec, and at the sun's surface is 617.7 km/sec. The escape velocity is calculated as:

Ve = 2Rg

where R is the radius of the celestial body and g is the acceleration due to the gravitational field at its surface. The peculiar chracteristic of a black hole is that the escape velocity at its “surface” (called its “event horizon”) is greater than the speed of light. Therefore nothing, not even light, may escape from it. Dict. Sci. Tech. [ PJC ]

n. The rotating wheel in an escapement mechanism which has notches that are periodically engaged and disengaged by the anchor. [ PJC ]