Runs away quickly from danger or an unpleasant situation. Third person singular present tense of 'flee'.
From Old English 'flēon', related to Old Norse 'flýja' and Gothic 'þliuhan'. The word shares Indo-European roots with words meaning 'to flow' or 'to run', reflecting the swift movement associated with escaping.
The word 'flee' is one of the few English verbs that changes its vowel sound completely in the past tense, going from 'flee' to 'fled' - a linguistic phenomenon called ablaut that's a remnant of ancient Germanic verb patterns. Interestingly, we still use 'flea' for the jumping insect, which comes from the same root word about quick movement.
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