flee

From Old English flēon, from Proto-Germanic *fleuhaną, from Proto-Indo-European *plewk-, *plew- (“to fly, flow, run”).

• IPA^(key): /fliː/
• Rhymes: -iː

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: flea

flee (third-person singular simple present flees, present participle fleeing, simple past and past participle fled)

1. (intransitive) To run away; to escape.

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

   • 1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./4/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:

     As they turned into Hertford Street they startled a robin from the poet's head on a barren fountain, and he fled away with a cameo note.

2. (transitive) To escape from.

   Many people fled the country as war loomed.

   Thousands of people moved northward trying to flee the drought.

3. (intransitive) To disappear quickly; to vanish.

   Ethereal products flee once freely exposed to air.

• beflee

• flight

• elfe, feel, fele, leef

flee

1. Alternative form of fle

• fle, flei

From Middle English flye, from Old English flȳġe, flēoge, from Proto-Germanic *fleugǭ. Compare English fly, Dutch vlieg, German Fliege.

flee

1. fly