These words refer to a withdrawal from danger or from an unpleasant situation. Escape is the most general of these, applying to any sort of withdrawal. The word does, however, carry connotations of urgency, though not necessarily of haste.

• He lay perfectly still and played dead to escape capture by the enemy; She rushed down the stairs to escape her enraged pursuer.

Run away is the most informal of these expressions; unlike escape , it specifically indicates swift movement and is most often restricted to actual physical action; on the other hand, it need not imply urgency: children who run away from home for no observable reason; those burglars who will run away if caught in the act. Sometimes the phrase is used without the physical implication: candidates who try to run away from controversial issues.

Retreat may suggest both urgency and haste, but, unlike the previous words, it need not necessarily suggest either. It is common to a military context, but is used widely outside this specific area: orders to retreat only in a desperate situation and then in an orderly, well-planned way.

• They retreated in frantic, disorganized haste; the decision to retreat before any threat of confrontation arose; He retreated slowly and quietly to his room before he could be seen.

Abscond also pertains to one or two specific contexts but unlike retreat is almost exclusively restricted to them. It refers mainly to embezzlement or theft in which property is illegally seized and carried off: the club’s last treasurer, who had absconded with the funds. The other common context refers to escaping from detention.

• Five boys absconded from the home.

It is sometimes used jocosity for less serious situations: warning her not to abscond with the book if he lent it to her.

Flee and fly both refer to a hasty escape and usually imply urgency as well: those who fled the burning hotel; those Trojans who are always depicted as flying from the courageous Greeks. The only effective difference between these words, now, is that fly is much more formal than flee and, in fact, would sound archaic to most ears. Furthermore, the word’s other and more common meaning, pertaining to travel through the air, can make it use in this sense seem confusing or, sometimes, comical; a child who flew from his kidnappers; refugees who have flown from persecution in other lands. Fled would seem preferable in both these circumstances.