evasive

«evasive» in Mova's school dictionary: evasive, they avoid giving a clear, direct answer, often… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

adjective (evasive; more evasive, most evasive)

meaning for a pupil

1) If someone is evasive, they avoid giving a clear, direct answer, often because they are hiding something. tree →

2) Evasive action is a quick movement to avoid danger, such as swerving or ducking. tree →

sense in the lessons

In stories and the news, an evasive answer is a clue that a character or politician may be hiding the truth. In safety talk, a driver or pilot «takes evasive action» to avoid a crash. In nature, animals use evasive moves to escape predators. Phrases: «an evasive answer», «be evasive about», «take evasive action».

examples

• When I asked who ate the cake, my brother was very evasive. tree →
• The minister gave an evasive answer to the question. tree →
• The pilot took evasive action to avoid the birds. tree →
• The rabbit made evasive zigzags to escape the fox. tree →
• Stop being evasive and tell me what happened! tree →
• Her evasive reply made the detective suspicious. tree →

note

Verb: evade (to avoid); noun: evasion. Adverb: evasively. Trap: «tax evasion» (illegal, hiding money) is different from «tax avoidance» (using legal tricks).

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «evasive» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.