Sign up ×

So as far as I understand 'to flee' is the verb, derivative noun from it is 'a flight' (as the process of running away), but what are the people who flee called? (And I don't mean cowards and other words of this kind.)

share|improve this question
They’re flighty flying fleers. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Mar 26 '14 at 18:11
It seems to me that fly can also mean flee, so it may make sense to call them flyers. – milestyle Mar 26 '14 at 18:35
@milestyle, sure, but nobody would really understand that they're fleeing - it would be assumed they were flying, right? – Kristina Lopez Mar 26 '14 at 18:36
As a curiosity: the German word is Flüchtling, which in English would be *flightling – Walter Tross Mar 27 '14 at 11:11
@JanusBahsJacquet Surely that would be fleet ones, for those who are not do not escape. :) “The fleet have fled.” – tchrist Mar 28 '14 at 0:29

7 Answers 7

up vote 30 down vote accepted

Despite how weird or unglamorous, the word you are looking for is actually fleer. My dead-tree (thus not easily linkable) American Heritage Dictionary specifically lists it as a noun form at the end of its entry for flee.

share|improve this answer
Plus a note: I believe you pronounce this as "flee-er", it does not rhyme with "rear". – Izkata Mar 27 '14 at 19:34
My dead-tree Webster's New Collegiate agrees. Fleer also means "To laugh or grimace coarsely or scornfully; sneer; A word or look of derision or mockery." Fleers aren't in a position to fleer until they have safely fled. – ab2 Aug 7 at 21:48

Often 'refugee' may be a good noun to use when describing people who are fleeing.

share|improve this answer

How about fugitive? Here is how Encyclopédie Universelle defines that term:


share|improve this answer
"Fugitive" carries strong connotations of criminality. – David Richerby Mar 26 '14 at 20:41

Perhaps you could use escapee. Most nouns that mean to flee will carry strong connotations of something or another; it's just the nature of the game.

share|improve this answer

What about runner? The term is frequently used in popular media to identify one that flees. The website subzin lists at least 30 instances of the phrase “We have a runner.”

share|improve this answer

Flee is synonymous with hasten, also a verb. It is derived from the Old French word 'haste' a noun which means: "Energetic speed in motion or action, as from eagerness, fear, urgency of circumstances, etc." From that a person who hastens(flees) is a (hastener). Source: The New Century Dictionary of the English Language, D.Appleton-Century Co., New York-London, 1944, p.717

share|improve this answer

It may be, in yon smoke conceal'd,

Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers,

And, but for you, possess the field.

(A H Clough, 'Say not the struggle naught availeth')

share|improve this answer

protected by tchrist Aug 9 at 14:00


Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead?
