Evasion

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  evasion \e*va"sion\ ([-e]*v[=a]"zh[u^]n), n. [L. evasio: cf. F.
     ['e]vasion. See {Evade}.]
     The act of eluding or avoiding, particularly the pressure of
     an argument, accusation, charge, or interrogation; artful
     means of eluding.
     [1913 Webster]


  
           Thou . . . by evasions thy crime uncoverest more.
                                                    --Milton.
  
     Syn: Shift; subterfuge; shuffling; prevarication;
          equivocation.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  evasion
       n 1: a statement that is not literally false but that cleverly
            avoids an unpleasant truth [syn: {equivocation}]
       2: the deliberate act of failing to pay money; "his evasion of
          all his creditors"; "he was indicted for nonpayment" [syn:
           {nonpayment}] [ant: {payment}]
       3: nonperformance of something distasteful (as by deceit or
          trickery) that you are supposed to do; "his evasion of his
          clear duty was reprehensible"; "that escape from the
          consequences is possible but unattractive" [syn: {escape},
           {dodging}]
       4: the act of physically escaping from something (an opponent
          or a pursuer or an unpleasant situation) by some adroit
          maneuver

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  142 Moby Thesaurus words for "evasion":
     abstention, airtight secrecy, anythingarianism, artifice,
     avoidance, avoiding reaction, bickering, boggling, break, breakout,
     buck-passing, captiousness, caviling, chicane, chicanery,
     circumvention, close secrecy, closeness, concealment, cop-out,
     cringe, crypticness, cunning, deceit, deception, defense mechanism,
     deliverance, delivery, discreetness, discretion, dodge, dodging,
     double-talk, duck, elusion, elusiveness, emergence, equivocating,
     equivocation, escape, escapism, eschewal, evasive action,
     evasiveness, excuse, extrication, fallback, fence-sitting, fencing,
     flight, flinch, foiling, forbearance, forestalling, forestallment,
     freeing, frustration, fudging, getaway, getting around,
     getting round, haggling, hairsplitting, hedging, hiddenness,
     hugger-mugger, hugger-muggery, impartiality, independence,
     issuance, issue, jailbreak, jink, leak, leakage, liberation,
     logic-chopping, lying, mugwumpery, mugwumpism, neutralism,
     neutrality, nit-picking, nonalignment, noncommitment,
     nonintervention, noninvolvement, nonpartisanism, nothingarianism,
     outguessing, outlet, outmaneuvering, outwitting, paltering,
     parrying, passing the buck, pettifoggery, prevarication,
     prevention, prisonbreak, pullback, pullout, pussyfooting,
     quibbling, recoil, refraining, release, rescue, retreat, riddance,
     runaround, secrecy, secretiveness, secretness, setting-free,
     shifting, shirking, shuffle, shuffling, shunning, shunting off,
     shy, sidestep, sidestepping, sidetracking, slip, sophistry,
     strict neutrality, subterfuge, suppressio veri, tergiversation,
     the dark, the runaround, the slip, thwarting, trichoschistism,
     trickery, uncommunicativeness, vent, weasel words, wince, zigzag
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  EVASION. A subtle device to set aside the truth, or escape the punishment of 
  the law; as if a man should tempt another to strike him first, in order that 
  he might have an opportunity of returning the blow with impunity. He is 
  nevertheless punishable, because he becomes himself the aggressor in such a 
  case. Wishard, 1 H. P. C. 81 Hawk. P. C. c. 31, Sec. 24, 25; Bac. Ab. 
  Fraud, A. 
       2. An escape from custody.