- 1elude somebody/something to manage to avoid or escape from someone or something, especially in a skillful way The two men managed to elude the police for six weeks.
Want to learn more?
Find out which words work together and produce more natural sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app.
- 2elude somebody if something eludes you, you are not able to achieve it, or not able to remember or understand it He was extremely tired but sleep eluded him. They're a popular band but worldwide success has eluded them so far. Finally he remembered the tiny detail that had eluded him the night before.
elude
verbNAmE//ɪˈlud//
Verb Forms present simple I / you / we / they elude he / she / it eludes
past simple eluded
-ing form eluding
Check pronunciation: elude