FLEE (fled)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: fled   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does flee mean? 

• FLEE (verb)
  The verb FLEE has 1 sense:

1. run away quickly

  Familiarity information: FLEE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FLEE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they flee    ... he / she / it flees   
Past simple: fled   
Past participle: fled   
-ing form: fleeing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Run away quickly

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

flee; fly; take flight

Context example:

He threw down his gun and fled

Hypernyms (to "flee" is one way to...):

break away; bunk; escape; fly the coop; head for the hills; hightail it; lam; run; run away; scarper; scat; take to the woods; turn tail (flee; take to one's heels; cut and run)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "flee"):

break (make a rupture in the ranks of the enemy or one's own by quitting or fleeing)

stampede (run away in a stampede)

abscond; absquatulate; bolt; decamp; go off; make off; run off (run away; usually includes taking something or somebody along)

elope; run off (run away secretly with one's beloved)

break loose; escape; get away (run away from confinement)

high-tail; hightail (retreat at full speed)

defect; desert (desert (a cause, a country or an army), often in order to join the opposing cause, country, or army)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

fleer (someone who flees from an uncongenial situation)

flight (the act of escaping physically)

 Context examples 

But wherever we fled, and however far we fled, always did we find the hated Russian folk.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Again I fled to the boat, hotly pursued; but this time Maud made no suggestion of turning back.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He smote her in the face, and she fled.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

She fled from America to avoid you, and she married an honourable gentleman in England.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Of course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was almost as strong as my fears.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I should have fled in terror and left my work undone.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

When we had fled to America Gennaro thought that he had cast it all off forever.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He had never seen a dog go mad, nor did he have any reason to fear madness; yet he knew that here was horror, and fled away from it in a panic.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Soon as she see him, without him seeing her, all her fear and wildness returned upon her, and she fled afore the very breath he draw'd.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It would be well that we should seem to be a merchant-ship from Southampton and appear to flee from them.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)