fleeing

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of flee.

   Thousands were fleeing the war-torn region by nightfall.

   Fleeing the collapsing empire, the scholars carried their manuscripts west.

   Note

   A participle that works with or without an object. Followed directly by a noun, it means escaping from something (fleeing the city). Used alone or with from, it means simply running away (seen fleeing, fleeing from the soldiers). It can also describe something that vanishes quickly. As a gerund it keeps its direct object, and that is how it differs from the noun of the act: fleeing the city, but the fleeing of the crowd.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of running away, especially from danger, pursuit, or something feared.

   The sudden fleeing of investors caused the market to collapse.

   Witnesses described the fleeing of the suspects into the night.

   Similarflight, escape, exodus, retreat

   Oppositeinflux, return, arrival

   Note

   Once it is a true noun, it can be counted, and the plural fleeings names repeated flights rather than one escape. The Dublin Review of 1865 uses it this way for the hunted life of Origen, with "fleeings from house to house." The noun takes of for the one who flees and from for what is fled. That is the mark of the noun, not the verb form.

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