entweicht

Entweicht is the third-person singular present tense form of the German verb entweichen. The infinitive entweichen means to escape, to slip away, or to seep out, often from a container, space, or plain physical or figurative boundaries. The prefix ent- with weichen (to yield or recede) gives the sense of movement away from a place or state. The verb is intransitive and commonly used for liquids, gases, odors, light, or even memories and information that leave a space or elude attention.

Usage notes:

- Literal sense: Der Rauch entweicht dem Kamin. The smoke escapes from the chimney.

- Figurative sense: Es entweicht mir eine Information. A piece of information escapes me; I can’t recall it at the moment.

- Positioning and sight: Licht entweicht durch das Fenster. Light escapes through the window.

The construction generally follows a subject–verb pattern with the thing that escapes as the subject, sometimes accompanied by prepositional phrases such as aus dem Raum or durch das Fenster.

Etymology and register:

Entweichen derives from ent- plus weichen, with ent- indicating outward movement or separation. The term is relatively common in formal, descriptive, or literary German and is used across science, journalism, and prose, but it remains less frequent in everyday colloquial speech compared with synonyms like entkommen in certain contexts.

See also:

- Entkommen (to escape, typically from pursuers)

- Weichen (to yield; root of the base verb)