Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Flee |
FleeVerb1. To run away: "He threw down his gun and fled.". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "flee" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references) |
Note: Flee \Flee\, intransitive verb. [imperative past participle Fled; present participle verb or noun Fleeing.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Tips from 1870 | Usage: Fly, Flee. In a general sense fly is applied to winged creatures and flee to persons. "What exile from himself can flee?" "When the swallows homeward fly." The past tense forms are sometimes confused, as, "The inhabitants flew to the fort for safety," "The wild geese have all fled to the South." The principal parts of the verbs are: Present. Past. Perf. part. fly, flew, flown. flee, fled, fled. The verbs flew and fled in the foregoing sentences should be transposed. Fly implies motion either from or toward. Flee implies motion from. Fly may be used, in a figurative sense, of persons, to indicate great speed as of wings. "I flew to his rescue." "He flew to my rescue." "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." The word flown is sometimes used erroneously as the past tense or perfect participle of the verb flow. The parts of this verb are flow, flowed, flowed. "The river has overflowed (not overflown) its banks." Source: Slips of Speech. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: FleeSynonyms: fly (v), take flight (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Avoidance | Beat a retreat; turn tail, turn one's back; take to one's heels; runaway, run for one's life; cut and run; be off like a shot; fly, flee; fly away, flee away, run away from; take flight, take to flight; desert, elope; make off, scamper off, sneak off, shuffle off, sheer off; break away, tear oneself away, slip away, slink away, steel away, make away from, scamper away from, sneak away from, shuffle away from, sheer away from; slip cable, part company, turn one's heel; sneak out of, play truant, give one the go by, give leg bail, take French leave, slope, decamp, flit, bolt, abscond, levant, skedaddle, absquatulate, cut one's stick, walk one's chalks, show a light pair of heels, make oneself scarce; escape; go away; (depart); abandon; reject. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Flee |
| English words defined with "flee": battue, break away, bunk ♦ displaced person, DP ♦ expel ♦ fear, fearfulness, Fled, fright ♦ hemlock ♦ lam, lot, Lot's wife ♦ regression, rout, rout out, run, run away ♦ scarper, stateless person ♦ To run away, To show the heels, To take to the heels, To turn the back, turn tail. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "flee": City of Destruction, Cross ♦ Flee the Falcon, Fly ♦ Korrigans ♦ Loose-coat Field ♦ Pharaoh's daughters, Polixenes ♦ refuge ♦ Sibyls. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "flee": Vermifugal. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Flee" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses. Manx (chickweed). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Some fears are too great to be ignored, too relentless to flee. Sometimes there's no option but to turn and face your fears and see what happens (The Hunger; writing credit: Gerald Wexler) I'm gonna flee from the scene of the crime in the nick of time (Bandits; writing credit: Harley Peyton) Shin's love was only for my master and rather than see him fight Saki for her hand, she persuaded Yoshi to flee with me to America (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; writing credit: Kevin Eastman; Peter Laird) -- I mean flee to my lodge in the hills (Monkey Business; writing credit: Will B. Johnstone; S.J. Perelman) We have to take our possessions and flee. I'm very good at that (Love and Death; writing credit: Woody Allen) | |
Lyrics | But I ain't set to flee the scene of the crime just yet (Murder Murder (Remix) *; performing artist: Eminem) Oh flee for your lives who heed me not (The Prophet's Song; performing artist: Queen; writing credit: Brian May) We'd flee to some far island (On the Road to Fairfax County; performing artist: The Roches) | |
Tongue Twisters | Flee from fog to fight flu fast! (references; author: unknown) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
| ||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
| ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
|
| ||||||||||||||||
| Author | Quotation |
Homer | Of men who have a sense of honor, more come through alive than are slain, but from those who flee comes neither glory nor any help. |
Horace | To flee vice is the beginning of virtue, and to have got rid of folly is the beginning of wisdom. |
Ovid | Time glides away and as we get older through the noiseless years; the days flee and are restrained by no reign. |
Voltaire | The public is a ferocious beast. One must either chain it up or flee from it. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
US Constitution | 1791 | Clause 2: A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime. (reference) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Scarlet Letter | Hawthorne, Nathaniel | Hester Prynne, therefore, did not flee. |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | Some dry weeds driven by the wind, passed rapidly by, and appeared to flee with dismay before something that was following |
Walden | Thoreau, Henry David | Take shelter under the cloud, while they flee to carts and sheds |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Civil Liberties | Uzbekistan | Some members and leaders of IRP and Adolat-True Path chose, or were forced, to flee abroad. (references) |
Angola | Throughout the year, new Angolan refugees continued to flee to the DRC, Zambia, and Namibia. (references) | |
Guinea-Bissau | Sierra Leonean refugees continue to flee to the country in response to harassment in Guinea. (references) | |
Economic History | Cote d'Ivoire | Many gendarmes and soldiers joined the fight against the junta government forcing Guei to flee. (references) |
Lebanon | The 16-day operation caused hundreds of thousands of civilians in south Lebanon to flee their homes. (references) | |
Togo | This incident provoked more than 300,000 Togolese to flee Lome for Benin, Ghana, or the interior of Togo. (references) | |
Human Rights | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | On April 1, police shot and killed Andrew Cuffy when he attempted to flee from a shop in Barrouallie. (references) |
Spain | Defendants are released on bail unless the court believes that they may flee or be a threat to public safety. (references) | |
Hungary | In addition aliens usually were held until their trials, since they are considered likely to flee the country. (references) | |
Minorities | Bangladesh | Other actions included the rape, torture, murder, and looting of Hindus, forcing them to flee their villages. (references) |
Political Economy | Afghanistan | Taliban military tactics forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee their homes. (references) |
Korea | Economic and political conditions have caused thousands of persons to flee their homes. (references) | |
Women | Syria | There are a few private, nonofficial, specifically designated shelters or safe havens for battered women who seek to flee their husbands. (references) |
Saudi Arabia | Some embassies of countries with large domestic servant populations maintain safehouses to which their citizens may flee to escape work situations that include forced confinement, withholding of food, beating and other physical abuse, and rape. (references) | |
Worker Rights | Poland | If they try to flee, their legs may be broken. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | REFUGE, n. Anything assuring protection to one in peril. Moses and Joshua provided six cities of refuge -- Bezer, Golan, Ramoth, Kadesh, Schekem and Hebron -- to which one who had taken life inadvertently could flee when hunted by relatives of the deceased. This admirable expedient supplied him with wholesome exercise and enabled them to enjoy the pleasures of the chase; whereby the soul of the dead man was appropriately honored by observations akin to the funeral games of early Greece. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Jimmy Carter | 1977-1981 | Although refugee populations persist in camps in Southeast Asia, and refugees continue to flee Vietnam, Laos and Kampuchea, the flow is not as great as in the past. |
Bill Clinton | 1993-2001 | Now we should go further and do better by making it a felony for any parent to cross a state line in an attempt to flee from this, his or her most sacred obligation. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Flee" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 76.36% of the time. "Flee" is used about 461 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 76.36% | 352 | 15,213 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 23.64% | 109 | 31,132 |
| Total | 100.00% | 461 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "flee": cause to flee ♦ causing to flee ♦ flee again ♦ flee away ♦ flee from ♦ flee from justice. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "flee"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | vlug (run away), ontsnap (escape), ontkom aan (escape). (various references) | |
Albanian | zhduket (disperse, dissipate, evanesce, evanish, evaporate, fade, vanish), vrapoj (patter, run, scoot), shpëtoj (bring off, bring through, carry through, creep out, deliver, elude, escape, extricate, get away, get off the hook, get out, get rid, get rid of, heal, preserve, rescue, rid, salvage, save, skip, spare). (various references) | |
Arabic | فر (abscond, bolt, break away, decamp, elope, escape, flight, fly, get away, get free, get off, run away, run off, slope, take flight, take to one's heels), هجر (break away, cast aside, dereliction, desert, desertion, disuse, drop out, emigratory, expel, expose, forsake, immigrate, jettison, leave, neglect, quit, relinquish, renounce, scrap, skive, strand, surrender, throw, waive, weigh anchor), هرب (abscond, contraband, drive away, elope, escape, fled, fleeing, fly, get away, get out of, powder, put to flight, run away, run first, run from smb., run off, shun, slope, smuggle, take flight, take to one's heels, tamper, traffic, turn tail), تفادى (avert, avoid, dodge, duck, obviate, outflank, parry, preclude, prepossess), تلاشى (disappear, dissolve, drain, evanesce, evaporate, fade, fall, fly, go to pieces, melt, molder, moulder, pass out of sight, peter, trail, vanish), تجنب (avert, avoid, avoidance, bypass, ditch, duck, eschew, eschewal, evade, evasion, fence, fight shy of, get round, give a wide berth, hide, miss, obviate, outrun, parry, put off, save, shirk, shuffle, shun, shy, sidestep, steer clear of, waive). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | стоя далеч от, напускам внезапно, бягам от (funk), бягам (course, cut, lick, pelt, run, run away, scurry, shirk), побягвам (dart off, flee away, run away). (various references) | |
Chinese | 逃走 (escape), 逋 (abscond, owe), 避 (avoid, escape, leave, shun, to hide, to keep away, to leave), 竄 (escape, leap, run away), 出逃 (Fled, fleeing), 奔逃 (run away). (various references) | |
Czech | utéci (abscond, boil over, elope, escape, run away, run off, scape, take off), uprchnout (abscond, elope, elude, get away, make one's getaway, scape). (various references) | |
Danish | undkomme (escape), undfly (escape), flygte (run away). (various references) | |
Dutch | ontsnappen (escape), ontkomen (escape), ontgaan (escape). (various references) | |
Esperanto | fuĝi (run away), eskapi (escape). (various references) | |
Faeroese | flýggja (deliver, furnish, run away, supply), sleppa (allow, drop, escape, leave, let, overthrow, release). (various references) | |
Finnish | paeta (escape, run away, take to flight). (various references) | |
French | fuir. (various references) | |
Frisian | flechtsje (run away). (various references) | |
German | fliehen (escape, shun, to flee). (various references) | |
Greek | φεύγω (go away, leave), το σκάω (abscond, make off, run away). (various references) | |
Hebrew | לערוק (bolt, desert, escape, rat, renegade, tergiversate), להמלט (escape, fly, get away, make off, run away, take to ones heels), לברוח (escape, fling off, get away, make haste, make off, run, run away, run off, scamper, take flight, take to ones heels, turn tail), לנוס (escape, fly, turn tail). (various references) | |
Hungarian | menekül (to be on the run, to run for), megfutamodik (fled, to beat a retreat, to cop out, to flee, to run for), idõ elröppen. (various references) | |
Indonesian | minggat (get out of here!, run away), melarikan diri (decamp, run away), kabur (bleary, blurred, bolt (of a horse), decamp, elope, elopment, fading, fuzzy, run off, unclear). (various references) | |
Italian | fuggire (abscond, run away). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 落ち行く (to be ruined, to flee), 逃腰 (being ready to run away, preparing to flee), 逃げ腰 (being ready to run away, preparing to flee), 逃げ走る (to flee, to run away), 逃げ支度 (preparing to flee), 飛び去る (to flee away, to scatter), 浮き足立つ (to be prepared to flee), 国外脱出 (to flee abroad). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | おちゆく (to be ruined, to flee), うきあしだつ (to be prepared to flee), にげごし (being ready to run away, preparing to flee), にげじたく (preparing to flee), にげはしる (to flee, to run away), こくがいだっしゅつ (to flee abroad), とびさる (to flee away, to scatter). (various references) | |
Korean | 달아나십시요. (various references) | |
Manx | chea voish, chea (abscondment, flight, retreat, run away). (various references) | |
Norwegian | flykte (fly). (various references) | |
Papiamen | hui (escape, run away). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | eeflay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | fugir (run away), escapar (escape). (various references) | |
Romanian | fugi la, fugi (escape, run), zbura (career, dart, dash, flash, fleet, flight, flit, fly, fly out, hover, sail, slip, sweep, tower), se refugia, scãpa cu fuga, refugia (escape, fly), pleca fugind (go off), pieri (die, disappear, expire, go under, lapse, perish), pãrãsi (abandon, cast off, cease, clear, desert, drop, evacuate, fail, forsake, jilt, leave, quit, reject, relinquish, renounce, surrender, throw, vacate), evada (escape), dispãrea (abscond, clear, decamp, die, disappear, dissolve, do a guy, drop off, evanesce, evaporate, fade away, fly, get out of sight, go out of sight, pass away, peter out, vanish). (various references) | |
Russian | бежать (race, scoot). (various references) | |
Scottish | teich (va. flee). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | uteći (run away), pobeći (break out, elope, escape, get away, make off, run, run away, run off, take flight), izmaći (get out, squirm), bežati (run away, scud). (various references) | |
Spanish | huir (run away). (various references) | |
Swedish | fly (fly, run away), fly från (fly). (various references) | |
Thai | หนี (bunk), หลบหนี (duck out, fly, hide out, lose). (various references) | |
Turkish | terketmek (cede, desert, desolate, discard, disuse, ditch, expose, fall off, forsake, jack in, jilt, leave, relinquish, revolt from, throw over, void, walk away, walk on, walk out of, walk out on), tüymek (bolt, bunk, hook it, make a bolt for it, make oneself scarce, pull out, scuttle, sheer off, skedaddle, skip out, slink off, slip off, take a powder, take flight, take wing), sıvışmak (decamp, do a bunk, duck, fade, get away, hook it, light out, make off, make tracks, nip off, scram, sheer off, shift away, sidle away, skedaddle, skin out, skip it, slide, slink off, sneak out of, take french leave, take wing), kaçmak (abscond, blow, bolt, break, break away, bunk, clear off, decamp, defect, desert, elope, escape, fade, fly, fly away, get away, go by, hook it, ladder, Lam, lapse, leg it, light out, make a bolt for it, make off, nip off, pack up, pull out, retreat, run, run away, run off, scamper away, scoot, scuttle, skip, skip it, skip out, slip, slip off, slope off, take flight, travel, walk off), kaçınmak (abstain, avoid, balk, baulk, beg, beware, chicken out, dodge, elude, eschew, evade, flee from, flinch, forbear, funk, get out of, keep clear of, refrain, refuse, shirk, short circuit, shun, sidestep, spare, stand aloof, stand apart, stand aside, steer clear of, Stow), akıp gitmek (elapse, lapse, range, run off, slide, slip by, stream), aceleyle çıkmak. (various references) | |
Turkmen | gaзmak (drop, retreat), bosmak. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | уникати (abscond, avoid, elude, eschew, forbear, obviate, shun, steer clear, waive), тікати (abscond, beat, bung off, chivvy, chivy, elope, go off, hop it, light out, run away, scat, scoot, scram, scurry away, skedaddle, skirr, trundle). (various references) | |
Welsh | ffoi, cilio rhag (recede from, retreat from, swerve frmo). (various references) | |
Yucatec | puuts'ul (escape), luk'ul (absent onself, depart, escape, go away, leave, run away). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Sumerian | 3100 BCE-2500 BCE | dug . . . zil. (various references) |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | aufugit, avolabunt, avolans, avolantes, avolare, avolaverunt, avolavit, confugerant, confugerat, confugerit, confugeritis, confugerunt, confugiat, confugiendum, confugiens, confugiet, confugimus, confugissent, confugisti, confugit, effugere, effugerent, effugeret, effugerunt, effugi, effugiant, effugiat, effugiemus, effugient, effugies, effugiet, effugisti, effugit, effugiunt, fuge, fugerant, fugerat, fugeratque, fugere, fugerem, fugerent, fugeret, fugerimus, fugerint, fugerit, fugeritque, fugerunt, fugeruntque, fugi, fugiam, fugiamus, fugiant, fugias, fugiat, fugiebam, fugiebant, fugiebas, fugiebat, fugiemus, fugiendum, fugiens, fugient, fugientem, fugientes, fugientibus, fugientibusque, fugientis, fugientium, fugies, fugiet, fugietis, fugio, fugisse, fugissent, fugisset, fugisti, fugistis, fugit, fugite, fugitque, fugiunt, ineffugibilem, perfugis. (various references) |
| Avestan | 200-600 | tarshta. (various references) |
| Old English | 450-1100 | fleon, forbugan, sceacan. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Language | Date | Source | Matthew Chapter 24, Verse 16 |
| Greek (transliterated) | 250 BC | Septuagint | Tote oi en th ioudaia feugetwsan epi ta orh |
| Latin | 405 | Vulgate | Tunc qui in Iudaea sunt fugiant ad montes |
| Old English | 990 | West Saxon | Fleon þanne to munten þa þe oniudea lande synt. |
| Middle English | 1395 | Wyclif | Thanne thei that ben in Judee, fle to the mounteyns; and he that is in the hous roof, |
| Renaissance English | 1526 | Tyndale | Then let them which be in Iury flye into the moutaynes. |
| Jacobean English | 1611 | King James | Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: |
| Victorian English | 1833 | Webster | Then let them who are in Judea flee to the mountains: |
| Basic English | 1964 | Ogden | Then let those who are in Judaea go in flight to the mountains: |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Matthew Chapter 24, Verse 16 |
| Cebuano | nan, sila nga anha sa Judea pakalagiwa ngadto sa kabukiran; |
| Chinese | 那 時 、 在 猶 太 的 、 應 當 逃 到 山 上 ． |
| Croatian | koji se tada zateknu u Judeji, neka bježe u gore; |
| Danish | da skulle de, som ere i Judæa, fly ud på Bjergene; |
| Dutch | Dat alsdan, die in Judea zijn, vlieden op de bergen; |
| Finnish | silloin ne, jotka Juudeassa ovat, paetkoot vuorille; |
| French | alors, que ceux qui seront en Judée fuient dans les montagnes; |
| German | alsdann fliehe auf die Berge, wer im jüdischen Lande ist; |
| Hungarian | Akkor, a kik Júdeában lesznek, fussanak a hegyekre; |
| Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari | Pada waktu itu, orang yang berada di Yudea harus lari ke pegunungan. |
| Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama | pada ketika itu orang yang di tanah Yudea hendaklah lari ke gunung; |
| Italian | allora quelli che sono in Giudea fuggano ai monti, |
| Korean | 그 때 에 유 대 에 있 는 자 들 은 산 으 로 도 망 할 지 어 다 |
| Latvian | Tad tie, kas Jûdejâ, lai bçg kalnos! |
| Manx Gaelic | Eisht lhig dauesyn t'ayns Judea chea gys ny sleityn. |
| Maori | Ko reira kia rere te hunga i Huria ki nga maunga: |
| Norwegian | da må de som er i Judea, fly til fjells, |
| Portuguese | então os que estiverem na Judéia fujam para os montes; |
| Rumanian | atunci, cei ce vor fi kn Iudea, sq fugq la munyi; |
| Shuar | Ashí shuar Jutía nunkanam írunna nu, muranam pisararti. |
| Spanish | entonces los que estén en Judea huyan a los montes. |
| Swahili | hapo, walioko Yudea na wakimbilie milimani. |
| Swedish | då må de som äro i Judeen fly bort till bergen, |
| Uma | agina tauna to mo'oha' hi Yudea metibo' hilou hi bulu' -na. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "flee": fleece, fleeced, fleecer, fleecers, fleeces, fleech, fleeched, fleeches, fleeching, fleecier, fleeciest, fleecily, fleecing, fleecy, fleeing, fleer, fleered, fleering, fleeringly, fleers, flees, fleet, fleeted, fleeter, fleetest, fleeting, fleetingly, fleetingness, fleetingnesses, fleetly, fleetness, fleetnesses, fleets. (additional references) | |
Words containing "flee": souffleed. (additional references) | |
| |
"Flee" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: elfe, Elfel, fela, feldene, fele, Feleke, felen, Feli, felo, ffly, Fiee, flae, flale, flaye, flde, fle, fleae, flean, fleav, fleaw, fleax, fleb, flec, flece, fleec, fleed, fleek, fleem, fleep, fleg, flege, Flegel, flei, flej, flek, Flem, flemen, flen, flep, flere, fleug, flexe, fley, flie, Fliegel, fliem, flye, flym, flyn, foee, Folea, fpe, Fylke, klee, olee. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "flee" (pronounced flē") |
| 3 | f l ē" | flea. |
| 2 | -l ē" | Allee, Chablis, enrollee, glee, jubilee, Lea, Lee, li, Nestle, parolee, plea. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: feel. | |
| Words within the letters "e-e-f-l" | |
-1 letter: eel, elf, fee, lee. | |
-2 letters: ef, el. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-e-f-l" | |
+1 letter: feels, fleer, flees, fleet, refel. | |
+2 letters: befell, beflea, belief, defile, deflea, eyeful, feeble, feebly, feeler, feline, felled, feller, felloe, felted, female, fennel, ferlie, ferrel, ferule, fettle, fleche, fledge, fleece, fleech, fleecy, fleers, fleets, flense, flexed, flexes, fleyed, freely, fueled, fueler, leafed, lefter, liefer, refeel, refell, refels, refelt, refile, reflet, reflew, reflex, refuel, relief, selfed, telfer. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
