Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To evade or escape from, as by daring, cleverness, or skill: The suspect continues to elude the police.
- v. To escape the understanding or grasp of: a name that has always eluded me; a metaphor that eluded them. See Synonyms at escape.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To avoid by artifice, stratagem, deceit, or dexterity; escape; evade: as, to elude pursuit; to elude a blow or stroke.
- To remain unseen, undiscovered, or unexplained, by; baffle the inquiry or scrutiny of: as, secrets that elude the keenest search.
- Synonyms To shun, flee, shirk, dodge, baffle, foil, frustrate.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To evade, or escape from someone or something, especially by using cunning or skill.
- v. transitive To shake off a pursuer; to give someone the slip.
- v. transitive To escape understanding of; to be incomprehensible to.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To avoid slyly, by artifice, stratagem, or dexterity; to escape from in a covert manner; to mock by an unexpected escape; to baffle
WordNet 3.0
- v. avoid or try to avoid fulfilling, answering, or performing (duties, questions, or issues)
- v. be incomprehensible to; escape understanding by
- v. escape, either physically or mentally
Etymologies
- From Latin ēlūdō ("evade, elude"), from ē ("out of"), short form of ex, + lūdō ("play; trick"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin ēlūdere : ē-, ex-, ex- + lūdere, to play (from lūdus, play; see leid- in Indo-European roots). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“And I seem to remember several books with Conan Doyle as the detective though the titles elude me.”
“The correct definition and use of the word elude has eluded 10:59 pm Anon.”
“Over the years we have seen this title elude some of the sport's greatest players (McEnroe, Sampras, Edberg, Becker, Federer to name a few).”
“Jim loves to blog anonymously about himself. he should learn how to spell "elude" in a press release.”
“Besides I was ready to supply the want of money by an increase of bodily privations and exertions, to elude which is the principal motive for spending money in travels of this sort.”
“The logic of the concluding paragraph seems to elude me.”
“The law allows such individuals to be picked up if they might flee or elude a subpoena for testimony.”
“How is it that this unconditional love continues to elude us, generation after generation?”
“Unfortunately, at this point you might also be feeling the beginnings of your resistance to sticking to your resolutions and asking yourself why discipline and willpower seem to elude you.”
The Huffington Post: Jason Mannino: How to Plan For R.E.A.L. Change
“The small, close-nit staff must elude a vicious killer who targets them, but all the while trying to keep the information of it from the guests.”
Broken Lizard: A Heretical Appreciation | Heretical Ideas Magazine
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘elude’.
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
bumwank, calamity, recalcitrant, gayenese, jeeze, nonsense, flabbergasted, juxtapose, procrastinating, ossanity, biffing, loser and 1972 more... -
Words
My list of words.
veritable, facetious, nadir, quixotic, apropos, acquiesce, ostensible, insipid, egregious, inveterate, coax, adroit and 409 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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fifi
verbs Adj Adv noun
indulge, convene, solve, dissolve, prospect, prospective, allege, resolve, accountable, administration, amid, agenda and 407 more...
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Words I Want To Master
Words I know... but can never seem to remember while speaking or writing!
unfettered, nebulous, elude, vapid, precipitous, abscond, venerate, voracious, replete, laconic, denigrating, unctuous and 23 more...
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beatricks's Words
tremendous, naiad, thrush, samsara, thronging, nascent, broom, aristeia, streak, susurrant, reverberate, resistentialism and 352 more...
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Ny New Words
From Barron Wordlist the New Words
lap, lank, languor, languish, lancet, lance, lampoon, larceny, larder, largess, lascivious, latitude and 120 more...
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NakedFringe's Words
masticate, chamber, orchid, mandolin, yellow, pomegranate, conundrum, paradox, gyrate, calamitous, opalescent, cacophony and 533 more...
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Favorite Five-Letter Words
Just what it sounds like. My favorites. Five letters.
ennui, barfy, samba, schwa, beefy, chunk, queef, spasm, skulk, bowel, elbow, fruit and 235 more...
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From Book - SAT & College Dictionary ...
ebb, exotic, immure, abeyance, panegyric, debonair, protege, dissipate, frantic, penitent, abject, edify and 871 more...
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MyVocab
A list of words to remember to incorporate into my vocabulary.
An extensive vocabulary aids expressions and communication.
Vocabulary size has been directly linked to reading com...acquiesce, self-disparaging, receded, abrogate, robust, putative, capricious, imperious, lexicon, syntax, semantics, pith and 139 more...
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Papageno's Words, Pt. I
hobbledehoy, absquatulate, chthonic, prolix, ululate, internecine, verisimilitude, animadversion, concupiscence, vertiginous, cucullate, lucubrate and 1554 more...
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One more switchback
Tip of the hat to Stephen, who always tells me "only one more switchback" as we go up the trail. Usually it is a lie, but it still works!
switchback, heavens to murgat..., prosody, catarrh, ice storm, existential, predicament, intermingle, comingle, stolid, zeitgeist, bibliophage and 146 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for elude.
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