Also 4–5 eschap(e. [f. ESCAPE v.; cf. OF. eschap (perh. the source in 14th c.), Sp. escape.]
1. The action of escaping, or the fact of having escaped, from custody, danger, etc.; spec. in Law: see quot. 1641.
α. c. 1300. K. Alis., 4287. For that eschape they beon anoyed sore.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, II. 65. He wes off his eschap sary.
1417. Bp. Clifford, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., II. 29, I. 90. Foryevyng me graciously the eschapes of the clerkes convictes out of my prison of Storteford.
β. 1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., I. i. 235. Your fellow Tranio heere to saue my life, Puts my apparrell, and my count’nance on, And I for my escape haue put on his.
1611. Bible, Ps. lv. 8. I would hasten my escape from the windie storme, and tempest.
1614. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, IV. vi. (1631), 67. What, has he made an escape, which way? follow, neighbour Haggise.
1641. Termes de la Ley, 142. Escape is where one that is arrested commeth to his liberty before that he be delivered by award of any Justice, or by order of Law.
1659. Hammond, On Ps. lxviii. 20. Paraphr. 330. To him we owe all our escapes.
1698. Ludlow, Mem., I. 221. No sooner was the King’s Escape taken notice of by the Guards.
1713. Addison, Guardian, No. 117, ¶ 3 (J.). Men of Virtue have had extraordinary Escapes out of such Dangers as have enclosed them.
1769. Blackstone, Comm., III. 415. When a defendant is once in custody upon this process [ca. sa.] … if he be afterwards seen at large, it is an escape.
1777. Priestley, Matt. & Spir. (1782), I. xx. 267. An igneous substance, which … makes its escape at death.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 171. His escape was attributed partly to his own singular equanimity, and partly to [etc.].
1878. Browning, La Saisiaz, 65. Yet is … forbidden premature escape from time.
2. concr. a. A plant that has ‘escaped’ from cultivation, a garden plant growing wild.
1870. Hooker, Stud. Flora, 16. Chelidonium majus … in the S. of England, elsewhere an obvious escape.
1887. W. R. Hayward, Botanist’s Pocket-bk., Pref. (ed. 5), 4. In many cases they [alien plants] are escapes from gardens.
b. U.S. An escaped person, a fugitive.
1881. Evening Star (Wash. D.C.), 25 June, 6/2. All the Chinese in this country, excepting officials, were escapes, or in the same category as were the slaves that escaped.
3. A means of escape. In FIRE-ESCAPE; and short for that word.
1810. Trans. Soc. Arts, XXVIII. 177. If every parish would provide one of these escapes … it would lessen the many accidents which occur by fire.
1887. Daily News, 16 May, 6/2. The fire brigade ran out a couple of their escapes.
4. The escaping of water, gases, etc., from confinement; in recent use esp. a leakage of gas, electricity, etc.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 808. Escape (Telegraphy), leakage of current from the line-wire to the ground, caused usually by defective insulation and contact with partial conductors.
Mod. There is an escape of gas in the kitchen.
† b. euphemistically. (More commonly SCAPE.)
1599. Harsnet, Agst. Darell, 41. Hee meeting Alice Goodridge in a Coppice did Let an Escape (as the book termeth it) which shee taking to be done in her contempt [etc.].
† 5. An involuntary outburst of feeling; a sally of wit. Obs.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., IV. i. 63. Thousand escapes of wit Make thee the father of their idle dreame, And racke thee in their fancies.
1670. Cotton, Espernon, III. XII. 623. Excusing himself for that little escape of his resentment.
1796. Burke, Regic. Peace, Wks. 1842, II. 314/1. Their views were only discovered now and then, in heat and as by escapes, but on this occasion they exploded suddenly.
† 6. An inadvertence, blunder, mistake; esp. a clerical or printer’s error. Obs.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1684), II. 469. The book itself sheweth the escape and biddeth instead of four to read three.
1590. Swinburne, Testaments, Epil. Whereas there be sundrie escapes in the print.
1650. Jer. Taylor, Treatises, Printer to Rdr. The Printer thinkes it the best instance of pardon if his Escapes be not laid upon the Author.
1680. R. Filmer, Patriarcha, ii. § 1. This negligence, or wilful escape of Lambine, in not translating a word.
1721. Wodrow, Corr. (1843), II. 613. There are several other variations between the 8vo and the quartos; but they seem literal escapes.
1786. Cowper, Wks. (1837), XV. 187. Some escapes will happen in so long a work.
1803. S. Pegge, Anecd. Eng. Lang. (1844), 134. Many grammatical escapes and errors.
1844. Darwin, in Life & Lett. (1887), II. 30. Now you may quiz me for so foolish an escape of mouth.
† b. An unstudied or artless performance.
1667. Dryden & Dk. Newcastle, Sir M. Mar-all, II. i. I am wholly ignorant of painting, music, and poetry; only some rude escapes.
† 7. An inconsiderate transgression; a peccadillo, venial error. (In Shaks. with different notion: an outrageous transgression.) Applied esp. to breaches of chastity. Obs.
1576. Woolton, Chr. Manual (1851), 74. Yet God, such is his goodness, winketh (as it were) at such escapes.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., IV. ii. 118. Rome will despise her for this foule escape.
1596. Lodge, Marg. Amer., D iij b. The escapes of Iupiter, the wanton delights of Venus, and the amorous deceits of Cupid were cunningly wrought.
1611. Cotgr., Peccadille, an escape, little sinne, small fault, venial offence.
1614. Wither, Sat. to King, Juvenilia (1633), 339. If her escapes I had not chanced to tell.
1678. R. Barclay, Apol. Quakers, xv. 351. O! how will they insult, and make more noise of the escape of one Quaker, than of an hundred among themselves!
8. Comb. escape-cock (see quot.); escape-pinion, the pinion on the escape-wheel arbor; escape-pipe, the pipe through which steam passes from an escape-valve; escape-shaft, a shaft provided for the escape of miners in case of the ordinary shaft becoming blocked; escape-valve, a valve fitted to the boiler, cylinder, or other part of a steam-engine, to provide for the exit of steam or water when necessary; escape-warrant, a process addressed to all sheriffs, etc., throughout England, to retake an escaped prisoner, even on a Sunday, and commit him to proper custody (Wharton); escape-wheel, the wheel that forms part of the escapement in a watch, called also escapement-wheel.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 62. *Escape cock is the bracket that supports the upper end of the escape wheel and pallet staff arbors. Ibid., 68. When the verge has an *escape pinion of 6, use an escape pinion of 7.
1817. Coleridge, Lay Serm., 425. Superfluous steam ejected by the *escape pipes … of a self-regulating machine.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 39. The dense clouds of steam which roll forth from … the escape-pipe of a steam-engine.
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 22 April, 3/1. A cube shaft fulfils the requirements of the Act as an *escape shaft.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., II. xxiii. 75. Fasten down the *escape-valve, and sit on it, and see where you ’ll land.
1751. Smollett, Per. Pic. (1779), IV. xcvi. 184. I kept snug and laughed at his *escape-warrant.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 58. The *escape wheel is of hard hammered brass.
