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Definition 2024


slip_away

slip away

English

Verb

slip away (third-person singular simple present slips away, present participle slipping away, simple past and past participle slipped away)

  1. To leave a place, or a meeting, without being noticed
    I'm going to try to slip away from work early, if I can.
    • 1906, Edith Nesbit, The Railway Children, Chapter 4: The engine-burglar,
      But when Bobbie crept down later to bring up her presents--for she felt she really could not be separated from them all night--Mother was not writing, but leaning her head on her arms and her arms on the table. I think it was rather good of Bobbie to slip quietly away, saying over and over, "She doesn't want me to know she's unhappy, and I won't know; I won't know." But it made a sad end to the birthday.
  2. (of time) to pass quickly, almost unnoticed.
    The months slipped away and became years.
  3. (of an advantage) To disappear.
    When Liverpool scored a third goal, their hopes of winning slipped away forever.
    • 2010 December 28, Kevin Darling, “West Brom 1 - 3 Blackburn”, in BBC:
      Scharner then headed a Dorrans free-kick against the crossbar, with Tchoyi unable to turn in the follow-up as the Baggies saw their hopes of salvaging a point slip away.
  4. To die
    He slipped away quietly in his sleep.

Synonyms