elude
/i'lu:d/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Verb:
- To avoid or escape from (someone or something) by being quick, skillful, or clever: To manage to stay away from or not be caught by someone, especially through agility or cunning.
- To fail to be understood or remembered by (someone): To be hard to grasp, comprehend, or recall.
- To fail to be attained or achieved by (someone): To remain just out of reach of attainment or accomplishment.
Examples of Usage
- Verb:
- The fugitive managed to elude capture for months. (The fugitive successfully avoided being captured.)
- The exact meaning of the poem eludes me. (I cannot quite grasp the poem's exact meaning.)
- A championship title has eluded the team for years. (The team has failed to win a championship for a long time.)
Advanced Usage
- "to elude one's grasp": to be just out of reach, either physically or metaphorically.
- Success seemed to elude her grasp no matter how hard she worked. (Success remained unattainable despite her efforts.)
- "to elude detection": to avoid being noticed or discovered.
- The spy's true identity eluded detection for decades. (The spy's real identity remained undetected.)
Variants and Related Words
- Elusive (adj): Difficult to find, catch, achieve, or define.
- The elusive concept of happiness. (The hard-to-define concept of happiness.)
- Elusion (n): The act of eluding; evasion. (This form is less common than "evasion".)
Synonyms
- Evade: To escape or avoid, especially by cleverness or trickery.
- Avoid: To keep away from or stop oneself from doing something.
- Dodge: To avoid (someone or something) by a sudden quick movement.
Related Phrasal Verbs
(Note: "Elude" is not typically used in phrasal verb constructions. The concept is usually expressed by the single verb or synonyms like "get away from.")
Related Idioms
- To slip through one's fingers: To escape or be lost, often due to a failure to grasp or hold on.
- The opportunity eluded him; it slipped through his fingers. (He missed the opportunity.)
- Just out of reach: Not quite attainable.
- The answer was frustratingly just out of reach, eluding her all night. (The answer was almost but not quite attainable.)
Verb
- avoid or try to avoid fulfilling, answering, or performing (duties, questions, or issues)
- He dodged the issue
- she skirted the problem
- They tend to evade their responsibilities
- he evaded the questions skillfully
- be incomprehensible to; escape understanding by
- What you are seeing in him eludes me
- escape, either physically or mentally
- The thief eluded the police
- This difficult idea seems to evade her
- The event evades explanation