slip awayverb

• 1

  To leave without being noticed.

  • I'm going to try to slip away from work early, if I can.
  • 1906, Edith Nesbit, The Railway Children, Chapter 4: The engine-burglar, But when Bobbie crept down later to bring up her presents--for she felt she really could not be separated from them all night--Mother was not writing, but leaning her head on her arms and her arms on the table. I think it was rather good of Bobbie to slip quietly away, saying over and over, "She doesn't want me to know she's unhappy, and I won't know; I won't know." But it made a sad end to the birthday.
• 2

  To pass quickly, almost unnoticed.

  • The months slipped away and became years.
  • But with every word she was drawing further and further into herself, so he gave that up and only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voice across the room.
• 3

  To disappear; to elude one; to recede; to dwindle.

  • What about love? Don't you want someone to care about you? What about love? Don't let it slip away
  • Scharner then headed a Dorrans free-kick against the crossbar, with Tchoyi unable to turn in the follow-up as the Baggies saw their hopes of salvaging a point slip away.
• 4

  To die peacefully.

  • He slipped away quietly in his sleep.