<B>-es</B> (2),<DL COMPACT><DD> (suffix.) the form of <B>-s</B> (2) used after <I>s, z, sh, ch,</I> as in <I>dresses, buzzes, washes, touches,</I> and after certain vowels, as in <I>does, goes, hurries, magnifies.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="es">
<B>Es</B> (no period),<DL COMPACT><DD> einsteinium (chemical element). </DL>
<A NAME="esa">
<B>ESA</B> (no periods),<DL COMPACT><DD> European Space Agency (which replaced ESRO in 1975). </DL>
<A NAME="esakidiode">
Esaki diode, =tunnel diode.</DL>
<A NAME="esau">
<B>Esau, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the older son of Isaac and Rebecca, who sold his birthright to his twin brother Jacob (in the Bible, Genesis 25:21-34). </DL>
<A NAME="esbat">
<B>esbat, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a meeting of witches. <BR> <I>Ex. Apart from the festivals, the covens meet once a month as near as possible to the time of the full moon to celebrate a less important ceremony known as the esbat (Atlantic).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="escadrille">
<B>escadrille, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a former unit of airplanes or warships, together with the equipment and men needed to keep them in use. In World War I an escadrille commonly consisted of six airplanes. </DL>
<A NAME="escalade">
<B>escalade, </B>noun, verb, <B>-laded,</B> <B>-lading.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> a scaling of or attack over the walls of a fort, castle, or the like, by means of ladders. <DD><I>v.t. </I> to scale or attack over (a wall or rampart) by means of ladders. </DL>
<A NAME="escalader">
<B>escalader, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a person who escalades. </DL>
<A NAME="escalate">
<B>escalate, </B>verb, <B>-lated,</B> <B>-lating.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to increase or decrease (prices, wages, or benefits), especially automatically, in proportion to some index, such as cost of living. <DD><B> 2. </B>to expand or increase (something) by stages. <BR> <I>Ex. The general escalated the war by sending in more troops.</I> <DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>to increase or decrease in proportion to some index. <BR> <I>Ex. As prices go up, costs escalate.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to increase or expand by stages. <BR> <I>Ex. The commotion in the sports arena almost escalated into a riot. The greater the number of nuclear Powers, the greater the chances that a limited attack might escalate into a full-scale nuclear war (Manchester Guardian).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>to move on, or as if on, an escalator. </DL>
<A NAME="escalation">
<B>escalation, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>an automatic price increase or decrease. <BR> <I>Ex. This price is subject to escalation reflecting changes in labor, material and other costs (Wall Street Journal).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>the act or process of escalating or state of being escalated; increase or expansion by stages. <BR> <I>Ex. We should consider the risks if we fail, particularly of the possibility of escalation of a military struggle in a place of danger (John F. Kennedy).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="escalationclause">
<B>escalation clause,</B> =escalator clause.</DL>
<A NAME="escalator">
<B>escalator, </B>noun, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a continuous moving stairway made on the endless chain principle, so that the steps ascend or descend continuously, for carrying passengers up or down. <BR> <I>Ex. Many department stores have escalators to carry the customers from one floor to another.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a person or thing that escalates. <BR> <I>Ex. ... the mobility of the social escalator (New Yorker). ... to halt the escalators of war by policing cease-fires (Maclean's).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B><B>=escalator clause.</B> <DD><I>adj. </I> of or having to do with an escalator clause or clauses. <BR> <I>Ex. escalator provisions, an escalator adjustment of prices and wages.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="escalatorclause">
<B>escalator clause,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a provision in a contract or treaty allowing an increase or decrease in wages, prices, royalties, or benefits, under specified conditions. <BR> <I>Ex. To protect themselves against increased costs, producers wrote in escalator clauses permitting gas price increases (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="escalatory">
<B>escalatory, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> leading to or involving escalation. <BR> <I>Ex. Simply to carry on as things stood was bound to lead to defeat; the U.S. had to make some sort of escalatory move (Sunday Times).</I> </DL>
<B>escallonia, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> any one of a group of mostly evergreen shrubs and small trees of the saxifrage family, having white, pink, or red flowers, and found in the temperate parts of South America. </DL>
<A NAME="escallop">
<B>escallop</B> (1) or <B>escalop</B> (1), noun. =scallop.</DL>
<A NAME="escallop">
<B>escallop</B> (2) or <B>escalop</B> (2), transitive verb. <B>=scallop </B>(def. 1).</DL>
<A NAME="escalloped">
<B>escalloped</B> or <B>escaloped, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> scalloped. </DL>
<A NAME="escambio">
<B>escambio, </B>noun, pl. <B>-bios.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a license formerly necessary to empower an English merchant to draw bills of exchange on persons living or traveling abroad. </DL>
<A NAME="escapable">
<B>escapable, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> that can be escaped. </DL>
<A NAME="escapade">
<B>escapade, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> an act of breaking loose from rules or restraint; wild or mischievous adventure or prank. <BR> <I>Ex. He was saddened by the escapade of his wayward son (Newsweek).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="escape">
<B>escape, </B>verb, <B>-caped,</B> <B>-caping,</B> noun, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>to get free; get out and away. <BR> <I>Ex. The soldier escaped from the enemy's prison. The bird escaped from its cage.</I> (SYN) flee. <DD><B> 2. </B>to avoid capture, trouble, punishment, or any threatened evil. <BR> <I>Ex. Up to this time the thief has escaped.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>to come out or find a way out from a container; leak. <BR> <I>Ex. Gas had been escaping from the cylinder all night.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>(Botany.) to grow wild. <DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to get free from. <BR> <I>Ex. He thinks he will never escape hard work. Escape me? Never--Beloved! While I am I, and you are you (Robert Browning).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to keep free or safe from. <BR> <I>Ex. We all escaped the measles.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>(Figurative.) to come out of without being intended. <BR> <I>Ex. A cry escaped her lips.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>to fail to be noticed or remembered by. <BR> <I>Ex. The pin escaped my eye. I knew his face, but his name escaped me.</I> <DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>the act of escaping. <BR> <I>Ex. His escape was aided by the thick fog.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a way of escaping. <BR> <I>Ex. a fire escape. There was no escape from the trap.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>(Figurative.) relief from boredom, trouble, tension, responsibility, or other burden. <BR> <I>Ex. Some people find escape in mystery stories.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>an outflow or leakage, as of gas or water. <DD><B> 5. </B>(Botany.) a plant that was once cultivated, but is now growing wild in fields or roadsides; wilding. <DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1. </B>providing a way of escape or avoidance. <BR> <I>Ex. The fugitive looked for an easy escape route. Detective stories are escape literature.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) skilled in escaping or freeing oneself from restraints. <BR> <I>Ex. an escape artist.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="escapeclause">
<B>escape clause,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a clause that frees a signer of a contract from certain responsibilities under specified circumstances. <BR> <I>Ex. The "escape clause" permits the U.S. to alter reductions previously agreed upon if imports are injuring a domestic industry (Wall Street Journal).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="escapee">
<B>escapee, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a person or, less commonly, an animal, that has escaped. <BR> <I>Ex. Police were warned to be on the lookout for two escapees from the Arkansas state penitentiary (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="escapehatch">
<B>escape hatch,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a hatch or door in a closed structure, such as an aircraft, elevator, or submarine, to permit those within to get out in an emergency. <BR> <I>Ex. The capsule would contain escape hatches as well as equipment for bringing the men back to earth safely in the event of a booster malfunction (Science News Letter).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) any route or means of escape. <BR> <I>Ex. To many people television is an escape hatch from routine.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="escapemechanism">
<B>escape mechanism,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Psychology.) a course of thought or action, taken usually unconsciously to avoid unpleasant reality, responsibility, or other burden. Daydreaming is an escape mechanism. </DL>
<A NAME="escapement">
<B>escapement, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a device that gives a watch or clock its regular movement. The motion of the wheels and of the pendulum or balance wheel are accommodated to each other by the escapement. One tooth of the wheel escapes at each swing of the pendulum. <DD><B> 2. </B>the mechanism that controls the movement of a typewriter carriage. <DD><B> 3. </B>a means of escape; outlet. <DD><B> 4. </B>the action of escaping. <DD><B> 5. </B>the number of fish that are allowed to spawn in each stream, as in salmon conservation. </DL>
<A NAME="escapeproof">
<B>escapeproof, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> safe from escape; secure. <BR> <I>Ex. Zookeepers too readily describe their animals' quarters as "escapeproof" (New Yorker).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="escaper">
<B>escaper, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a person or thing that escapes or has escaped; escapee. <BR> <I>Ex. The cadets met former members of the underground movement who assisted escapers (London Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="escapevelocity">
<B>escape velocity,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the minimum velocity that a moving body must reach to break away from the gravitational field of the earth or other attracting body. To overcome the gravitational pull of the earth a speed of approximately 25,000 miles per hour is needed. <BR> <I>Ex. To make a Moon satellite, some sort of brake has to be provided to slow down the vehicle below the escape velocity (New Scientist).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="escapism">
<B>escapism, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the habit of avoiding unpleasant things by daydreaming or by entertainment, such as motion pictures or reading light fiction. <BR> <I>Ex. This "management by escapism" is usually a manifestation of a fearful and insecure society (Atlantic).</I> </DL>