marked by quiet and caution and secrecy; taking pains to avoid being observed; "a furtive manner"; "a sneak attack"; "stealthy footsteps"; "a surreptitious glance at his watch"
in or to or toward the rear; "he followed behind"; "seen from behind, the house is more imposing than it is from the front"; "the final runners were far behind"
remaining in a place or condition that has been left or departed from; "when he died he left much unfinished work behind"; "left a large family behind"; "the children left their books behind"; "he took off with a squeal of tires and left the other cars far behind"
in debt; "he fell behind with his mortgage payments"; "a month behind in the rent"; "a company that has been run behindhand for years"; "in arrears with their utility bills"
in or into an inferior position; "fell behind in his studies"; "their business was lagging behind in the competition for customers"
of timepieces; "the clock is almost an hour slow"; "my watch is running behind"
run away; usually includes taking something or somebody along; "The thief made off with our silver"; "the accountant absconded with the cash from the safe"
the act of escaping physically; "he made his escape from the mental hospital"; "the canary escaped from its cage"; "his flight was an indication of his guilt"
a means or way of escaping; "hard work was his escape from worry"; "they installed a second hatch as an escape"; "their escape route"
an avoidance of danger or difficulty; "that was a narrow escape"
an inclination to retreat from unpleasant realities through diversion or fantasy; "romantic novels were her escape from the stress of daily life"; "his alcohol problem was a form of escapism"
the unwanted discharge of a fluid from some container; "they tried to stop the escape of gas from the damaged pipe"; "he had to clean up the leak"
a plant originally cultivated but now growing wild
issue or leak, as from a small opening; "Gas escaped into the bedroom"
run away from confinement; "The convicted murderer escaped from a high security prison"
remove oneself from a familiar environment, usually for pleasure or diversion; "We escaped to our summer house for a few days"; "The president of the company never manages to get away during the summer"
the act of leaving secretly or without explanation
the event of passing out of sight
ceasing to exist; "he regretted the disappearance of Greek from school curricula"; "what was responsible for the disappearance of the rainforest?"; "the disappearance of resistance at very low temperatures"