SLIP AWAY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does slip away mean? 

• SLIP AWAY (verb)
  The verb SLIP AWAY has 2 senses:

1. leave furtively and stealthily

2. pass by

  Familiarity information: SLIP AWAY used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SLIP AWAY (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Leave furtively and stealthily

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

slip away; sneak away; sneak off; sneak out; steal away

Context example:

The lecture was boring and many students slipped out when the instructor turned towards the blackboard

Hypernyms (to "slip away" is one way to...):

go away; go forth; leave (go away from a place)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Pass by

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

elapse; glide by; go along; go by; lapse; pass; slide by; slip away; slip by

Context example:

three years elapsed

Hypernyms (to "slip away" is one way to...):

advance; go on; march on; move on; pass on; progress (move forward, also in the metaphorical sense)

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

fell; fly; vanish (pass away rapidly)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP

 Context examples 

"Now, he has his back towards me," thought I, "and he is occupied too; perhaps, if I walk softly, I can slip away unnoticed."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“Dear me!” he said, “it's past one. The moments slip away so, in the confidence of old times, Master Copperfield, that it's almost half past one!”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It was agreed that when the police left the house I should slip away by night and come back no more.

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

"There's so little of her, I'm afraid to say much, for fear she will slip away altogether, though she is not so shy as she used to be," began their father cheerfully.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It was hard indeed for Alleyne to break away from these two new but hearty friends, and so strong was the combat between his conscience and his inclinations that he dared not look round, lest his resolution should slip away from him.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“I thought I’d bring him round myself; then he couldn’t slip away. There he is, all safe and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the same as you.”

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

"Now is my time to slip away," thought I: but the tones that then severed the air arrested me.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

An hour afterward her mother peeped in and there she was, scratching away, with her black pinafore on, and an absorbed expression, which caused Mrs. March to smile and slip away, well pleased with the success of her suggestion.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

After dinner, when we were sitting by the fire, and I was meditating an escape to Peggotty without having the hardihood to slip away, lest it should offend the master of the house, a coach drove up to the garden-gate and he went out to receive the visitor.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

You must go into the drawing- room while it is empty, before the ladies leave the dinner-table; choose your seat in any quiet nook you like; you need not stay long after the gentlemen come in, unless you please: just let Mr. Rochester see you are there and then slip away—nobody will notice you.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)