Flee

//fliː// verb

verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To run away; to escape. intransitive

    "The prisoner tried to flee, but was caught by the guards."

  2. 2
    run away quickly wordnet
  3. 3
    To escape from. transitive

    "Many people fled the country as war loomed."

  4. 4
    To disappear quickly; to vanish; to fleet. intransitive

    "Ethereal products flee once freely exposed to air."

Synonyms

All synonyms
take flightabscondabscondabsquatulateabsquatulateamscray

Antonyms

All antonyms
come

Example

More examples

"Hope is the last thing that man has to flee unto."

Etymology

From Middle English flen, from Old English flēon, from Proto-Germanic *fleuhaną, from Proto-Indo-European *plewk-, *plew- (“to fly, flow, run”). Cognate with Dutch vlieden, German fliehen, Icelandic flýja, Swedish fly, Gothic 𐌸𐌻𐌹𐌿𐌷𐌰𐌽 (þliuhan). Within English, related to fly and more distantly to flow.

Related phrases

fill and flee

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