evacuate
evacuate Lexical Profile
evacuate Game Scores & Validity
• verb
To remove people from a dangerous place to somewhere safe, or to leave a dangerous building or area.
"Emergency crews worked through the night to evacuate residents from the flooded coastal towns."
To empty a container, vessel, or bodily organ of its contents, such as air, fluid, or waste.
"The technician used a mechanical pump to evacuate the air from the sealed glass chamber."
Word Nuance & Usage
Traditionally, 'evacuate' took a place as its direct object (meaning to empty a building), while using a person as the object sounded like the medical sense of emptying the bowels; in modern English, however, 'evacuate' is universally accepted with both places and people as the object.
• Rhymes for evacuate
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the late Middle Ages from Latin 'evacuatus', the past participle of 'evacuare' (to empty out), formed from 'e-' (out) and 'vacuus' (empty).