tending or seeking to evade; avoiding the issue; not straightforward avoiding or seeking to avoid trouble or difficulties: to take evasive action hard to catch or obtain; elusive
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025
e•va•sive /ɪˈveɪsɪv/USA pronunciation adj.
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025- using evasion:evasive answers; evasive maneuvers to escape.
e•va•sive•ness, n. [uncountable]
e•va•sive
(i vā′siv),USA pronunciation adj.
e•va′sive•ly, adv.
e•va′sive•ness, n.
- tending or seeking to evade;
characterized by evasion:an evasive answer. - elusive or evanescent.
- evas(ion) + -ive 1715–25
e•va′sive•ness, n.
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
'evasive' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
boggle
- coy
- dodge
- double-talk
- doublespeak
- eel
- elusive
- end run
- equivocal
- federalese
- flannel
- game
- hedge
- indefinite
- indirect
- nice-nellyism
- noncommittal
- nonsense
- oblique
- pin
- run around
- runaround
- shifty
- shuffle
- shuffling
- sideways
- song and dance
- stall
- temporize
- tergiversate
- tortuous
- weasel words
- whiffler
- wriggly