Log in or Sign up
evacuate love

evacuate

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To withdraw or depart from; vacate.
  • intransitive verb To withdraw or send away (troops or inhabitants) from a threatened area.
  • intransitive verb To relinquish military possession or occupation of (a town, for example).
  • intransitive verb To excrete or discharge waste matter from (the bowel, for example).
  • intransitive verb To empty or remove the contents of (a closed space or container).
  • intransitive verb To empty or remove (fluid, for example) from a closed space or container.
  • intransitive verb To create a vacuum in.
  • intransitive verb To withdraw from or vacate a place or area, especially as a protective measure.
  • intransitive verb To excrete waste matter from the body.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make empty; cause to be emptied; free from anything contained: as, to evacuate a vessel; to evacuate the stomach by an emetic.
  • Hence To leave empty; vacate; depart from; quit: as, the enemy evacuated the place.
  • To make void or empty of something essential; deprive; strip.
  • To make void; nullify; make of no effect; vacate: as, to evacuate a marriage or a contract.
  • To void; discharge; eject: as, to evacuate excrementitious matter.
  • To produce an evacuation, as by letting blood.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb obsolete To let blood.
  • intransitive verb to expel stool from the bowels; to defecate.
  • transitive verb To make empty; to empty out; to remove the contents of.
  • transitive verb rare Fig.: To make empty; to deprive.
  • transitive verb To remove; to eject; to void; to discharge, as the contents of a vessel, or of the bowels.
  • transitive verb To withdraw from; to quit; to retire from; as, soldiers from a country, city, or fortress.
  • transitive verb obsolete To make void; to nullify; to vacate.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To leave or withdraw from; to quit; to retire from; as, soldiers from a country, city, or fortress.
  • verb To make empty; to empty out; to remove the contents of, including to create a vacuum; as, to evacuate a vessel or dish.
  • verb To remove; to eject; to void; to discharge, as the contents of a vessel, or of the bowels.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb move out of an unsafe location into safety
  • verb move people from their homes or country
  • verb create a vacuum in (a bulb, flask, reaction vessel)
  • verb excrete or discharge from the body
  • verb empty completely

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English evacuaten, to expel (excessive or morbid humors) from the body (according to medieval theories of physiology), from Latin ēvacuāre, ēvacuāt-, to empty out : ē-, ex-, ex- + vacuus, empty (from vacāre, to be empty; see euə- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin evacuare.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word evacuate.

Examples

  • With them were four family members of those who died in the terrorist attacks, including Maggie Lemagne, whose brother David was a police officer killed while helping people evacuate from the burning towers.

    Campaigns call 9/11 cease-fire 2008

  • Have you been wondering why so many people refuse to evacuate from the coast when a hurricane such as Rita or Katrina is approaching?

    September 2005 2005

  • That would help me establish that Governor Blanco had 3 days to help Mayor Nagin evacuate all those poor dead souls that are floating in New Orleans today, as the Hurricane Evacuation Plan promised that they would do.

    Stop the cover-up now « BuzzMachine 2005

  • If our call to evacuate is “successful” and 80% respond, what will happen?

    Deals with devils « BuzzMachine 2005

  • Have you been wondering why so many people refuse to evacuate from the coast when a hurricane such as Rita or Katrina is approaching?

    The Cone of Uncertainty 2005

  • One is a, when we bring people to shelters, or we open shelters or evacuate from the areas, the coastal areas, we have our metro buses that pick people up at predetermined points that are marked.

    Needless exaggeration « BuzzMachine 2005

  • The excuse that the 200,000 people were too poor to evacuate is nonsense too.

    Should New Orleans be rebuilt? « BuzzMachine 2005

  • And don†™ t forget the the number of those who also Didn†™ t evacuate from the rest of the decimated Gulf Coast region.

    More than a tragedy — a scandal « BuzzMachine 2005

  • Jack’s response to an order to evacuate is disbelief: “I’m not just a college professor,” he whines.

    Class Conflict 2010

  • Jack’s response to an order to evacuate is disbelief: “I’m not just a college professor,” he whines.

    April « 2010 « Bill Ayers 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.