From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishevacuatee‧vac‧u‧ate /ɪˈvækjueɪt/ ●○○ verb 1 [transitive]SEND to send people away from a dangerous place to a safe placeevacuate somebody from/to something Several families were evacuated from their homes. During the war he was evacuated to Scotland.2 [intransitive, transitive]EMPTY to empty a place by making all the people leave Police evacuated the area. The order was given to evacuate.3 [transitive] formal to empty your bowels —evacuation /ɪˌvækjuˈeɪʃən/ noun [countable, uncountable] the evacuation of British troops from the area Police ordered the evacuation of the building.→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
evacuate• He then waited until another officer took control before allowing himself to be evacuated.• Why the chamber should have decided to evacuate after half-a-million years stability remains a matter of conjecture.• The stock exchange was quickly evacuated after receiving a bomb threat.• Terra, 60 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, was evacuated as the fires threatened to spread.• We had to evacuate because they were afraid it was going to crack.• A five-block area had to be evacuated following the discovery of 500 pounds of dynamite in a house.• Besides, he knew in his heart of hearts evacuating Heymouth was the right thing to do.• Local residents were evacuated in case there needed to be a controlled explosion.• Police evacuated the immediate area and began a meticulous search for other bombs after the second explosion.• Last month, 400 Pittsburg residents had to be evacuated when a train hauling military explosives derailed.• Part of the village was evacuated while Army bomb experts made safe the device.Origin evacuate (1300-1400) Latin past participle of evacuare, from vacuus “empty” 