FLEEING Synonyms: 109 Similar and Opposite Words

fleeing

verb

present participle of flee

as in disappearing

to cease to be visible the fog fled with the arrival of the dawn

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in escaping

to get free from a dangerous or confining situation a murderer who fled on foot

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in retreating

to hasten away from something dangerous or frightening a toddler who fled when the ladybug he had been quietly watching suddenly began flying around the room

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of fleeing In 2009, two Israeli tank shells exploded immediately outside Al-Fakhoora, which was crowded with families fleeing an Israeli ground offensive. — Mosab Abu Toha, New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2026 As expected, the animals became anxious, either fleeing the threatening odor or freezing in place. — Cody Cottier, Scientific American, 7 Oct. 2026 After arriving on the scene, deputies saw a white GMC Yukon fleeing the area. — CBS News, 7 Oct. 2026 He was arrested on a riverbank less than a half-mile from the school after fleeing the scene, according to police. — Claudia Ciobanu, Los Angeles Times, 7 Oct. 2026 Ireland has also taken in large numbers of Ukrainians fleeing the war. — Michael Dorgan, FOXNews.com, 6 Oct. 2026 Witnesses to the March 8 shooting reported seeing a white Tesla Model 3 with a paper license plate fleeing the scene. — Nancy Dillon, Rolling Stone, 30 Sep. 2026 Investigators did not find any trace of an intruder fleeing the area, and the damage to the garage side door was inconsistent with a typical break-in, police testified. — Nicki Brown, CNN Money, 29 Sep. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for fleeing

Verb

Worried about your package disappearing from your porch this holiday season?

— Savannah Sicurella, AJC.com, 7 Oct. 2026
But Week 4 brought an especially jarring wave, with stars and indispensable starters disappearing from game after game, giving teams an early lesson in contingency planning.

— Rick Maese, Washington Post, 5 Oct. 2026

Definition of disappearing

Verb

Paola Nicolaides was 12 years old in 1974, when her family fled their home in the capital, Nicosia, escaping the invading Turkish army.

— Deepa Fernandes, STAT, 8 Oct. 2026
After escaping from slavery in Kentucky, Allensworth joined the Civil War on the Union side, becoming a chaplain and rising to the rank of Colonel.

— Anne Ewbank, Sacbee.com, 8 Oct. 2026

Definition of escaping

Verb

Rivera said officials had received reports of the retreating shoreline in Chiriquí and Veraguas and were coordinating surveillance with Panama’s maritime authorities and security agencies.

— Antonio María Delgado, Miami Herald, 9 Oct. 2026
Still, following the victory, Johnson quickly opened the door to the idea of Keenum retreating into a backup role behind Bagent.

— Dan Wiederer, New York Times, 3 Oct. 2026

Definition of retreating

Verb

Along with Max, Erica advocated for a charity stamp to benefit vanishing species and has been vocal about LGBTQ+ visibility at baseball games.

— Madeleine Janz, PEOPLE, 28 Sep. 2026
If live sports are the only thing preventing the bundle from vanishing outright, a stable virtual MVPD market has gone a long way toward moderating the overall losses in the pay-TV space.

— Anthony Crupi, Sportico.com, 23 Sep. 2026

Definition of vanishing

Verb

Bombers flying from South Dakota to targets in Iran would cost more in fuel and flying time than those taking off from England's Cotswolds region, which is 3,900 miles closer to Tehran.

— Steve Hendrix, Arkansas Online, 6 Oct. 2026
Experts who study bats say that, although residents should practice caution, the odds of getting rabies from the flying creatures remain very low.

— Karen Garcia, Los Angeles Times, 6 Oct. 2026

Definition of flying

Verb

Dyson built the CameraJet around 16 million lines of code and a model trained on 470,000 dental images, bolting a camera, pump, fluid system and software onto a device people have historically cleaned with nylon bristles.

— Ryan Brennan, Charlotte Observer, 6 Oct. 2026
Now every SaaS company that spent the last three years bolting AI features onto legacy infrastructure just got very expensive news.

— Rafael Flores, Forbes.com, 16 Sep. 2026

Definition of bolting

Verb

New England beat Buffalo so the public isn't exactly fading the Patriots, but this still feels like a bit of a trap line to me.

— Dan Zaksheske OutKick, FOXNews.com, 8 Oct. 2026
Efforts are underway to rekindle this fading heritage before their skills are lost.

— Kelly Kasulis Cho, Christian Science Monitor, 8 Oct. 2026

Definition of fading

Verb

Ties between the two countries remain strained over their long-running Himalayan border dispute, which erupted into a deadly skirmishes in 2020 that saw soldiers from both sides use rocks and iron rods in brutal hand-to-hand combat.

— Helen Regan, CNN Money, 10 Oct. 2026
Lighting, of course, is all-LED, with the headlights coming with daytime running lights, with the system automatically switching between daylight running and low beam as conditions require.

— New Atlas, New Atlas, 10 Oct. 2026

Definition of running

Browse Nearby Words

fleecy

fleeing

flees

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“Fleeing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fleeing. Accessed 13 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of fleeing

verb

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