elude

See also: éludé and élude

English

Etymology

From Latin ēlūdō (“to evade, elude”), from ē- (“out of”, short form of ex-) + lūdō (“to play; to trick”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, faded in Canada mid-20th century) IPA^(key): /ɪˈljuːd/
• (Standard Southern British) IPA^(key): [ɪˈlʉwd]
• (MLE) IPA^(key): /ɪˈlyːd/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪˈlud/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ɪˈluːd/
• (Wales, Ottawa Valley) IPA^(key): /ɪˈlɪu̯d/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Homophones: allude, illude (weak vowel merger)

Verb

elude (third-person singular simple present eludes, present participle eluding, simple past and past participle eluded)

1. (transitive) To evade or escape from (someone or something), especially by using cunning or skill.
   • 1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral., London: Oxford University Press, published 1973, § 26:

     Thus the observation of human blindness and weakness is the result of all philosophy, and meets us at every turn, in spite of our endeavours to elude or avoid it.

   • 1951 August, P. W. Gentry, “Cliff Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 516:

     The line continued in operation until about 1908, but the precise date of closure has eluded research.

   • 2021 May 29, Phil McNulty, “Manchester City 0-1 Chelsea”, in BBC Sport‎:

     It leaves City still searching for the Champions League, the trophy that has always eluded them

2. (transitive) To shake off (a pursuer); to give someone the slip.
   • 2012 December 29, Paul Doyle, “Arsenal's Theo Walcott hits hat-trick in thrilling victory over Newcastle”, in The Guardian‎:

     Podolski gave Walcott a chance to further embellish Arsenal's first-half performance when he eluded James Perch and slipped the ball through to the striker.

3. (transitive) To escape being understandable to; to be incomprehensible to.

   I get algebra, but calculus eludes me.

4. (transitive) To escape someone's memory, to slip someone's mind.

   The solution of that brainteaser eludes me and the name of the author eludes my memory too.

Derived terms

• eluder
• eludible

Related terms

• allude
• deflect
• delude
• illude

Translations

to evade, or escape from someone or something

Armenian: please add this translation if you can Basque: please add this translation if you can Bulgarian: избягвам (bg) (izbjagvam), отбягвам (bg) (otbjagvam) Catalan: eludir (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 躲避 (zh) (duǒbì), 逃避 (zh) (táobì) Czech: vyhýbat se (cs) impf, unikat (cs) impf Danish: flygte (da), rømme, undvige, undgå, stikke af Esperanto: please add this translation if you can French: éluder (fr) Georgian: please add this translation if you can German: sich entziehen (de), entgehen (de), entkommen (de), umgehen (de), aus dem Weg gehen Italian: eludere (it) Khmer: គេច (km) (kɨc) Latin: ēlūdō Mongolian: please add this translation if you can Persian: اجتناب کردن (fa), تفره رفتن Portuguese: escapar (pt), esquivar (pt) Romanian: eluda (ro) Russian: ускользать (ru) impf (uskolʹzatʹ) Spanish: eludir (es) Thai: please add this translation if you can Ukrainian: вислизати impf (vyslyzaty) Vietnamese: trốn chạy khỏi, né tránh (vi)

to shake off a pursuer

Czech: uniknout (cs) pf German: abschütteln (de), sich absetzen von (de), sich entziehen (de), entkommen (de), entgehen (de)

to escape understanding of; to be incomprehensible to

Czech: vymykat se impf (chápání) German: sich jmds. Verständnis entziehen Russian: ускользать (ru) impf (uskolʹzatʹ)

to escape so.'s memory

Catalan: estar oblidat, oblidar (ca) (subject and object reversed) French: oublier (fr) (subject and object reversed) German: nicht einfallen, entfallen sein Italian: stare dimenticato Latin: dēdiscor, dēdoceor Portuguese: estar esquecido Spanish: estar olvidado, olvidársele

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Woiwurrung: (please verify) welipteen

Anagrams

• Deuel

Estonian

Noun

elude

1. genitive plural of elu

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /eˈlu.de/
• Rhymes: -ude
• Hyphenation: e‧lù‧de

Verb

elude

1. third-person singular present indicative of eludere

Anagrams

• edule

Latin

Verb

ēlūde

1. second-person singular present active imperative of ēlūdō

Portuguese

Verb

elude

1. inflection of eludir:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /eˈlude/ [eˈlu.ð̞e]
• Rhymes: -ude
• Syllabification: e‧lu‧de

Verb

elude

1. inflection of eludir:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative