Word.ws English Dictionary

gave someone the slip

gave someone the slip is the simple past of give someone the slip.

Meaning of give someone the slip

Verb

give someone the slip (third-person singular simple present gives someone the slip, present participle giving someone the slip, simple past gave someone the slip, past participle given someone the slip)

  1. (idiomatic) To evade, escape, or get away from somebody.
    • The police chased the suspect for two days before he finally gave them the slip and vanished.

Questions about gave someone the slip

What is gave someone the slip the simple past of?
Gave someone the slip is the simple past of give someone the slip.

Words near gave someone the slip in the dictionary

  1. gave someone the gears
  2. gave someone the heave-ho
  3. gave someone the old heave-ho
  4. gave someone the runaround
  5. gave someone the shits
  6. gave someone the slip
  7. gave someone the time
  8. gave someone their cards
  9. gave someone their flowers
  10. gave someone to understand
  11. gave someone what for

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gave someone the slip (page history and authors); give someone the slip (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “gave someone the slip.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gave_someone_the_slip. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.