the act of evading or rendering a thing vain and of no effect; a dexterous getting clear, or eloping out of an affair, difficulty, embarrassment, or the like. We say, to elude a proposition, &c. The design of chicaneery is, to elude the force of the laws; This doctor has not resolved the difficulty, but studied it. Alexander, says the historian, in cutting the Gordian knot, either eluded the oracle or fulfilled it: Ille neguicquam lucetatus cum latentibus nodis, Nikhil, inquit, intereft, quomodo folvatur; gladioque ruptis omnibus loris, oraculi forttem vel cludit, vel impiebit.