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flee

verb
FLEE/fliː/

Formsflees, fleeing, fled

3 meanings of flee

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  1. 1
    verbintransitive
    To run away in order to escape danger, harm, or trouble.

    Residents began to flee as the floodwaters rose toward their homes.

    The rebels fled into the mountains under cover of darkness.

    Similarescape, run, bolt, evacuate, retreat

    Oppositestay, remain, stand

  2. 2
    verbtransitive
    To escape from a place, situation, or pursuer by getting away from it.

    Refugees flee their homeland when violence makes daily life impossible.

    He fled the country hours before the police came to arrest him.

    Similarleave, escape, abandon, desert, quit

  3. 3
    verbintransitive
    To disappear quickly; to vanish or fade away in a moment.

    Daylight seemed to flee the instant the storm clouds gathered.

    All his doubts fled as the crowd began to cheer.

    Similarvanish, disappear, fade, evaporate, dissipate

    Oppositeappear, linger, persist

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Origin

"Flee" comes from Middle English flen, from Old English flēon, going back to Proto-Germanic *fleuhaną and a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to fly, flow, run." It is related to Dutch vlieden, German fliehen, and, within English, to "fly" and more distantly "flow."