Other forms: evaded, evading, evades
To evade is to slip away from capture, questions or taxes. Evade arrest, evade the question, evade tax.
It means getting out of something by manoeuvre rather than by force or refusal — evading a question is answering around it. Tax evasion is illegal, where tax avoidance is not, and that distinction turns entirely on this verb. Note evasion, evasive; and that the Latin means to go out, the same vadere that gives invade and, at a distance, wade.
1verbevadeTo slip away from capture or questions.
“The thief evaded the police by climbing over rooftops.”
2verbavoidTo avoid paying tax unlawfully.
“The businessman went to prison for evading tax on his foreign income.”
evade is a slipping away.
Also accepted in games: dodge, avoid
Latin evadere is e plus vadere, to go. Invade, pervade and the English wade come from the same going.
Proto-Indo-European
*weh₂dʰ-
Latin
ēvādō — to pass or go over; flee
Middle French
évader
English, today
evade
Built from
From Middle French évader, from Latin ēvādō (“to pass or go over; flee”), from ē (“out of, from”) + vādō (“to go; walk”). See also wade.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA