Scape

//ˈskeɪp// noun, verb

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A leafless stalk growing directly out of a root, bulb, or subterranean structure.
  2. 2
    Escape. archaic

    "I spake of most disastrous chances, […] Of hairbreadth scapes in the imminent, deadly breach."

  3. 3
    The cry of the snipe when flushed.
  4. 4
    (architecture) upright consisting of the vertical part of a column wordnet
  5. 5
    The basal segment of an insect's antenna (i.e. the part closest to the body).
Show 8 more definitions
  1. 6
    A means of escape; evasion. obsolete
  2. 7
    The snipe itself.
  3. 8
    erect leafless flower stalk growing directly from the ground as in a tulip wordnet
  4. 9
    The basal part, more specifically known as the oviscape, of the ovipositor of an insect.
  5. 10
    A freak; a slip; a fault; an escapade. obsolete

    "Not pardoning so much as the scapes of error and ignorance."

  6. 11
    The shaft of a column.
  7. 12
    A loose act of vice or lewdness. obsolete

    "though I am not bookish, yyet I can read waiting-gentlewoman in the 'scape"

  8. 13
    The apophyge of a shaft.
Verb
  1. 1
    To escape (someone or something). archaic, transitive

    "No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace / As I have seen in one autumnal face. / Young beauties force our love, and that's a rape, / This doth but counsel, yet you cannot scape."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Latin scāpus, from Doric Greek σκᾶπος (skâpos). Doublet of native English shaft.

Etymology 2

From Middle English scapen (whence also atscapen and ofscapen (“to escape”)), formed by aphesis from escapen, ascapen (“to escape”). Compare also Old French scapper, a variant of Old French eschaper, formed via similar process. Doublet of escape and scarper.

Etymology 3

From Middle English scapen (whence also atscapen and ofscapen (“to escape”)), formed by aphesis from escapen, ascapen (“to escape”). Compare also Old French scapper, a variant of Old French eschaper, formed via similar process. Doublet of escape and scarper.

Etymology 4

Probably imitative.

Next best steps

Mini challenge

Unscramble this word: scape