escape key

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
escape/ɪˈskeɪp/

▶verb

• 1 break free from confinement or control.

  ■ (of a gas, liquid, or heat) leak from a container.

• 2 elude or get free from (someone).

  ■ succeed in eluding (something dangerous or undesirable): the baby narrowly escaped death.

• 3 fail to be noticed or remembered by: the name escaped him.

▶noun

• 1 an act of escaping.

  ■ a means of escaping.

• 2 a temporary distraction from reality or routine.

• 3 (also escape key) a key on a computer keyboard which interrupts the current operation or converts subsequent characters to a control sequence.

• 4 a garden plant or pet animal that has gone wild and (in plants) become naturalized.

– derivatives
escapable adjective,
escapee noun,
escaper noun.

– origin ME: from OFr. eschaper, based on med. L. ex- ‘out’ + cappa ‘cloak’.