EVACUATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does evacuate mean? 

• EVACUATE (verb)
  The verb EVACUATE has 5 senses:

1. move out of an unsafe location into safety

2. empty completely

3. move people from their homes or country

4. create a vacuum in (a bulb, flask, reaction vessel)

5. excrete or discharge from the body

  Familiarity information: EVACUATE used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EVACUATE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they evacuate    ... he / she / it evacuates   
Past simple: evacuated   
Past participle: evacuated   
-ing form: evacuating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Move out of an unsafe location into safety

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Context example:

After the earthquake, residents were evacuated

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

move (change residence, affiliation, or place of employment)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

evacuation (the act of evacuating; leaving a place in an orderly fashion; especially for protection)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Empty completely

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

evacuate the bottle

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

empty (make void or empty of contents)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

evacuation (the act of removing the contents of something)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Move people from their homes or country

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

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

displace (cause to move, usually with force or pressure)

Cause:

move (change residence, affiliation, or place of employment)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

evacuation (the act of evacuating; leaving a place in an orderly fashion; especially for protection)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Create a vacuum in (a bulb, flask, reaction vessel)

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

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

empty (make void or empty of contents)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Excrete or discharge from the body

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Synonyms:

empty; evacuate; void

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

egest; eliminate; excrete; pass (eliminate from the body)

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

suction (empty or clean (a body cavity) by the force of suction)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

evacuant (strongly laxative)

evacuation (the act of removing the contents of something)

evacuation (the bodily process of discharging waste matter)

 Context examples 

Be ready to evacuate your home, and know how to treat basic medical problems.

(Disaster Preparation and Recovery, Federal Emergency Management Agency)

About 700 residents were evacuated to centers set up at the nearby town of Bega and several schools in affected areas were closed on Monday.

(Australian Wildfires Destroy Homes, Kill Cattle as Hundreds of People Flee, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

A switch device consisting of thin, flexible, magnetically controlled contacts enclosed in a sealed and evacuated enclosure.

(Electrically Open Reed Device Component, NCI Thesaurus)

In the presence of a high electric field, peptide ions are accelerated down an evacuated flight tube.

(Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry, NCI Thesaurus)

A container, usually made of glass or metal, that has at least two walls with the space between each wall evacuated so as to prevent the transfer of heat.

(Dewar, NCI Thesaurus)

An evacuated glass tube designed to accelerate electrons onto a screen to create images.

(Cathode Ray Tube Device Component, NCI Thesaurus)

Thanks being returned for what we had not got, and a second hymn chanted, the refectory was evacuated for the schoolroom.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)