Evasion

//ɪˈveɪʒən// noun

noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act of eluding or evading or avoiding, particularly the pressure of an argument, accusation, charge, or interrogation; artful means of eluding. countable, uncountable

    "In these hunting scenes, as many critics have noted, the reversals, negotiations, lurkings, and evasions between hunter and prey mirror and frame the bedroom strategies of the Lady and Gawain."

  2. 2
    the act of physically escaping from something (an opponent or a pursuer or an unpleasant situation) by some adroit maneuver wordnet
  3. 3
    nonperformance of something distasteful (as by deceit or trickery) that you are supposed to do wordnet
  4. 4
    the deliberate act of failing to pay money wordnet
  5. 5
    a statement that is not literally false but that cleverly avoids an unpleasant truth wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
equivocationequivocationprevaricationshufflingsubterfugeabstention

Example

More examples

"Tax officials are zeroing in on income tax evasion."

Etymology

From Middle French évasion, from Late Latin evasionem (accusative of evasio).

Related phrases

fare evasionimmune evasiontax evasion

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.