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flee
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
flee
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
flee in terror
▪ The children fled in terror as the barn caught fire.
flee the country (=leave it very quickly to avoid trouble)
▪ At the outbreak of the war, many people fled the country.
flee/escape across the border
▪ Over 100,000 civilians fled across the border.
flee/escape into exile
▪ Hundreds of people fled into exile or were jailed.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
abroad
▪ He decided that he had no alternative but to flee abroad.
▪ More than a million fled abroad, often at their peril.
▪ Some of his companions died with him, a few fled abroad, but most took refuge in Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire.
▪ Over 140,000 refugees had fled abroad.
▪ John and other members of the family fled abroad, some to Virginia, others to the Continent.
▪ His military adviser, Kleandridas, fled abroad, and was condemned to death in his absence.
▪ Achym fled abroad to avoid the consequences of his crime.
▪ Harry Dubar, who resigned and fled abroad in late June.
back
▪ He made such noisy protestations that his nervous owner fled back into the waiting-room.
▪ I fled back to the privacy of my own room to retch and vomit.
▪ The two white men fled back to the settlements.
▪ Izanagi fled back to the earth's surface, pursued by an army of thunder gods and headless warriors.
▪ Dara fled back to Agra and set off on the road to Delhi without daring to face his father.
▪ We fled back down the streets holding hands.
▪ The Xingu man fled back to the forest, unable to believe that anyone could wish to live in such a place.
▪ Unsuitably dressed and squealing in the nippy air, the girls ran round like chickens before fleeing back to the cars.
■ NOUN
area
▪ Many flee rural areas for the relative safety of the cities, particularly Bogota.
▪ Hundreds of thousands of people are reported to have fled the area.
▪ Major employers like General Motors, Goodyear, and Firestone had fled the area.
▪ More than 80,000 people fled the area around Taloqan as the fighting grew closer.
▪ For decades, sports teams tried to solve their financial problems by fleeing urban areas for squeaky-clean suburbs.
▪ The town contains about 70,000 people of whom 30,000 have fled from other areas.
▪ As many as 10,000 civilians were reported to have fled the area.
border
▪ It reveals how thousands of Shias have fled across the border to escape.
▪ The raids caused 26,000 refugees to flee across the border to the neighboring region of Ingushetia.
▪ Countless unarmed civilians fleeing to the borders were killed by helicopter gunships.
city
▪ He has since fled to another city.
▪ An army officer tells Suyuan to flee the city.
▪ At night, lit from within, she looked like a stricken ghost, fleeing the city of glittering towers.
▪ The top spot goes to the candidate whose petitions are fled first with the city clerk.
▪ Some 100,000 civilians had fled the city.
▪ Many wounded persons were treated and hidden by their families, while still other wounded men fled the city.
▪ They were victorious; the conquered Thebans fled and their city was leveled to the ground.
country
▪ By the end of 1995 foreign money was pouring back into most of the countries it had hastily fled.
family
▪ If the nest is disturbed and she decides the family should flee, the youngsters behave in an extremely disciplined way.
▪ The family fled to Hong Kong just after the War, when the Communists were coming to power.
▪ Since Christmas, 10 families have fled the town fearing they will be the next targets.
▪ Maybe the family fled after the flood, or maybe they had all been drowned.
▪ John and other members of the family fled abroad, some to Virginia, others to the Continent.
fear
▪ To flee; to flee through fear.
▪ Failure indicates that the Ogre has fled in fear of its life.
▪ The original case was brought by three men who said they fled Pak istan in fear for their lives or from persecution.
home
▪ It had been his only possession when he had fled his home as it burned.
▪ Residents stood shivering in the chilly night air as Red Cross officials scrambled to find them lodging after they fled their homes.
▪ The dynamic of the tale is simple: a man flees his home and lives in exile by the sea.
▪ Teachers, nurses and farmers have fled their rural homes hoping to find safety in the cities.
house
▪ Miriam, unable to endure this harrowing sight a moment longer, had fled from the tiger house.
man
▪ The dynamic of the tale is simple: a man flees his home and lives in exile by the sea.
▪ The men fled in a car and could be armed with assault rifles, said Capt.
▪ The two white men fled back to the settlements.
▪ About 50 people were wounded and 50 of Jess's men had to flee.
▪ Witnesses reported seeing a couple of men fleeing the scene.
▪ Young men have fled to town for work.
▪ Many wounded persons were treated and hidden by their families, while still other wounded men fled the city.
others
▪ Why he and others wished to flee was obvious to the world.
▪ One night, inevitably, one of the sick died, and the next morning, the others fled.
▪ An ex-girlfriend has borrowed a gun. Others have fled town.
people
▪ There he campaigned in favour of the increasing numbers of people fleeing the Pyongyang regime.
▪ When people flee, they deprive the organization of their expertise and experience, while at the same time undermining its reputation.
▪ Executions resumed, and hundreds of people fled into exile or were jailed.
▪ There was no place to buy food, find water, and the roads were clogged with people also fleeing town.
▪ At least 60, 000 people who fled levee breaks on the Feather River remained shut out of their homes.
▪ Police had raided nearby Jagannath Hall in Dhaka University and people were fleeing the campus.
▪ Fleeing the Organization Less overtly heroic than those who fight the dysfunctional organization are the people who choose to flee from it.
police
▪ Both groups fled before police arrived.
▪ They put the baby on a bed before fleeing, police said.
refugee
▪ The ferry was packed with refugees fleeing sectarian violence in the Moluccas.
▪ You see refugees fleeing war zones with less baggage.
▪ Of the more than 1,000 refugees who fled last week, not one is known to have helped identify the guerrillas.
▪ At the time, refugees fled in every direction.
▪ In the ensuing riot, a hut containing refugees seeking to flee the violence, mainly northerners, was set on fire.
▪ The raids caused 26,000 refugees to flee across the border to the neighboring region of Ingushetia.
▪ Over 140,000 refugees had fled abroad.
resident
▪ The respectable residents have long since fled to the suburbs to escape the inner city pathologies.
room
▪ Her eyes blazed at him as she fled to her room.
▪ They sometimes even keep talking after their audience has fled the room.
▪ I forced a smile and then turned and fled to my room.
▪ Perdita cried unashamedly after they left, fleeing to her bare room and hurling herself down on the pink counterpane.
▪ Even the cat hid from him, fleeing from room to room as he passed through the house.
scene
▪ The young gunman was on a truck fleeing the scene of a shoot-out with marines in Mogadishu.
▪ Prosecutors contend that McVeigh used the Mercury as a getaway car to flee the scene of the bombing five days later.
▪ Most urban visitors will flee the scene and never return.
▪ Bluechel, unharmed, fled the scene, a bullet knocking off his cap as he ran.
▪ Witnesses reported seeing a couple of men fleeing the scene.
▪ Gang leaders fled the scene, and all traces of rancour and suspicion vanished with them.
▪ He fled the scene on foot, but turned up several hours later at Summit Medical Center.
terror
▪ Its people flee in terror on tractors, horse-drawn carts, cars or on foot.
▪ Instead, we imprisoned thousands of skilled people, and thousands more fled in terror.
▪ There was a whisper amongst the servants that she had fled from Andrew in terror on the night of her return.
▪ They fled in terror back across the frontier.
▪ A violent and sudden earthquake is said to have toppled a nearby hill, causing the torturers to flee in terror.
▪ After entering the cave, Hawk senses such awesome power that he flees in terror.
▪ But the government, in pursuit of high-minded ideals, has created a bureaucratic monster before which small business-people flee in terror.
thousands
▪ It reveals how thousands of Shias have fled across the border to escape.
▪ Instead, we imprisoned thousands of skilled people, and thousands more fled in terror.
▪ Hundreds of thousands of civilians fled.
▪ Tens of thousands fled into exile.
▪ Hundreds of thousands of people have fled the Moluccas and tens of thousands are sheltering in camps in the region.
war
▪ They fled the civil war there a year ago.
▪ You see refugees fleeing war zones with less baggage.
▪ They had fled away to war, to that dream of a ghostly battle elsewhere.
■ VERB
force
▪ Should its enemies be destroyed or forced to flee the Squig is free to start bouncing again.
▪ Thousands of Nuba were forced to flee as government soldiers scaled the mountains, destroying almost 2,500 homes and burning food stores.
▪ At the beginning, the Sioux forced him to flee Chequamegon Bay.
▪ He gathered what money he had just in case Gallagher was forced to flee.
▪ He was overthrown in a coup in 1991 and forced to flee the country, but that only fed his popularity.
▪ He said that up to 1,000 guerrillas were trying to rout or encircle government posts to force defenders to flee.
▪ Families forced to flee during the conflict have yet to return.
report
▪ They were reported to have fled the camps and were said to be attempting to return to their homes.
▪ He is reported to flee from class when the door is opened.
▪ Sigua was reported to have fled to the rebel headquarters in a Komsomol summer camp outside Tbilisi to avoid arrest.
▪ The signalman and stationmaster from Gaisal are reported to have fled immediately after the accident.
▪ Hundreds of thousands of people are reported to have fled the area.
▪ As many as 10,000 civilians were reported to have fled the area.
try
▪ Others flared like candles as they tried to flee.
▪ Of course, the boy was frightened and tried to flee, but the sorcerer grabbed him and hit him.
▪ The king had tried to flee the country in June 1791, and had been ignominiously brought back under guard.
▪ Police feared that du Pont might try to flee through a series of tunnels beneath the house.
▪ It will be picked off when fear makes it try to flee.
▪ The driver was arrested after he crashed into a parked vehicle and tried to flee on foot.
▪ Finally it lost a wheel on a roundabout and passers-by grabbed the two as they tried to flee.
▪ Neighbors say Flor was shot first, and Smith tried to flee.
turn
▪ Her first impulse was to turn and flee.
▪ As the pair drew near he turned and fled.
▪ I turned, about to flee, about to deny my name, about toThe man looked familiar.
▪ But as he turned to flee, Derek slumped at the wheel, clutching his chest.
▪ The Federals halted, turned, and fled, our friends crossing the railroad and pursuing them.
▪ She stifled a desire to turn and flee, wondering what was wrong with her.
▪ If charged by a powerful enemy they can turn and flee away, hopefully regrouping for a later return.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Most of the women there were Somalis fleeing from the civil war.
▪ Rollins tried to flee the country but was stopped at the airport.
▪ Up to five million political refugees have fled to other countries.
▪ When police arrived, the two men fled.
▪ When they saw the police car, his attackers turned and fled.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Episcopal persecution, however, drove them to flee to the relative anonymity of London at the end of the 1620s.
▪ He gathered what money he had just in case Gallagher was forced to flee.
▪ The temblor sent thousands of office workers in Seattle fleeing into the streets.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Flee

Flee \Flee\ (fl[=e]), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Fled (fl[e^]d); p. pr. & vb. n. Fleeing.] [OE. fleon, fleen, AS. fle['o]n (imperf. fle['a]h); akin to D. vlieden, OHG. & OS. fliohan, G. fliehen, Icel. fl[=y]ja (imperf. fl[=y][eth]i), Dan. flye, Sw. fly (imperf. flydde), Goth. [thorn]liuhan. [root]84. Cf. Flight.] To run away, as from danger or evil; to avoid in an alarmed or cowardly manner; to hasten off; -- usually with from. This is sometimes omitted, making the verb transitive.

[He] cowardly fled, not having struck one stroke.
--Shak.

Flee fornication.
--1 Cor. vi. 18.

So fled his enemies my warlike father.
--Shak.

Note: When great speed is to be indicated, we commonly use fly, not flee; as, fly hence to France with the utmost speed. ``Whither shall I fly to 'scape their hands?''
--Shak. See Fly, v. i., 5.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
flee

Old English fleon, flion "take flight, fly from, avoid, escape" (contracted class II strong verb; past tense fleah, past participle flogen), from Proto-Germanic *fleuhan "to run away" (cognates: Old High German fliohan, Old Norse flöja, Old Frisian flia, Dutch vlieden, German fliehen, Gothic þliuhan "to flee"), probably from PIE *pleuk-, extended form of root *pleu- "to flow" (see pluvial). Also compare fly (v.2).\n

\nWeak past tense and past participle fled emerged in Middle English under influence of Scandinavian. Old English had a transitive form, geflieman "put to flight, banish, drive away," which came in handy in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Related: fled; Fleeing.

Wiktionary
flee

vb. (label en intransitive) To run away; to escape.

WordNet
flee
  1. v. run away quickly; "He threw down his gun and fled" [syn: fly, take flight]

  2. [also: fled]

Wikipedia
Flee (album)

Flee is an album by British blues rock musician Jeremy Spencer credited as "The Jeremy Spencer Band" (composed of members of the Children of God new religious movement), with particularly strong input from Michael Fogarty. Spencer had been a member of Fleetwood Mac from 1967–71, and this 1979 release was Spencer's third album apart from Fleetwood Mac, and his second recorded while a member of the Children of God.

Flee

The term flee may refer to:

  • Withdrawal (military), retreating from battle
  • Fight-or-flight response, running away
  • Flee (album), an album by Jeremy Spencer
  • Flée, several French communes
  • A nickname for Flee the Seen, an American band

Usage examples of "flee".

The abomination of it all, the vengeance of destiny which exacted this sacrilege, filled her with such a feeling of revolt that at the moment when vertigo was about to seize her and the flooring began to flee from beneath her feet, she was lashed by it and kept erect.

These fugitives, who fled before the Turkish arms, passed the Tanais and Borysthenes, and boldly advanced into the heart of Poland and Germany, violating the law of nations, and abusing the rights of victory.

In a burst of red abysmal ferocity it was over, except for one wretch who fled screaming back the way the priests had come, pursued by a swarm of blood-dabbled shapes of horror which reached out their red-smeared hands for him.

She and Lou had fled to a corner of the cafeteria behind the ailing ailanthus, the bad joke of the company.

One is confined to the island at Akasha, unable to flee for he cannot travel over running water.

Five centuries ago, when the keep of Alcazar was first carved from the rock, the guild was fleeing from the sinking of Castle Drakk in southern Alasea.

The alguazil fled, leaving me one leg free, the other burdened by the gyve, and as he fled so fled all others, being thus taken unawares.

Emaa had tried to force her into living in Niniltna, the womb to which she had fled from the stifling, swarming confines of college, the place waiting for her on long weekends and vacations between time on the job in Anchorage, the one place in the world able to heal the wounds inflicted by five and a half years of casework featuring raped and beaten women and abused children, her home, her center, her sanctuary, her refuge.

For a brief instant the sight filled Eldric with an appalling and unreasoning fear and it was only with great effort that he did not turn and flee.

Downward they fled, From under the haunted roof, To the valley aquake with the tread Of an iron-resounding hoof, As of legions of thunderful horse Broken loose and in line tramping hard.

The Murgos simply turned, fled south to the banks of the River Arend on the east side of the city, and tried to swim across.

The Mexican army was so completely scattered that their commander Arista fled unaccompanied across the Rio Grande.

Kimball and Chloe have never donned Spandex and fled from a secret underground entrance to Ashling in a re-engineered Pontiac to rid Gotham City of its unsavory elements.

A subjective viewpoint, tailored to fit what the drunk tank prisoners saw, the assaulters trying to flee the cellblock and liberate other inmates.

At dawn I found myself close by my own door, and the Spaniard fled towards the Atocha gate.