escaped

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of escape.

   Steam escaped from the cracked valve with a loud hiss.

   She realized how narrowly she had escaped serious harm.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs: the plain past (the dog escaped) and the participle after have or had (it had escaped twice). The verb also runs both ways. It is intransitive with from (escaped from prison) or transitive with a direct object (escaped the guards, escaped her notice). Only transitive uses yield a true passive, which is why programmers speak of an escaped character: one that has been made to read literally.

2. 2
   adjective

   Having gotten free from custody, especially from a prison or other place of confinement.

   The escaped inmate was recaptured near the state border two days later.

   Farmers reported an escaped bull trampling crops across the valley.

   Similarrunaway, fugitive, loose

   Oppositecaptive, confined

   Note

   An adjective with an active meaning, which is unusual for a past participle. An escaped prisoner is the one who did the escaping, as a fallen tree is one that fell, while a captured prisoner had something done to them. It grows from the intransitive use of the verb form, usually sits before the noun, and does not grade: nothing is more escaped than something else.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2