FLEE, verb intransitive

1. To run with rapidity, as from danger; to attempt to escape; to hasten from danger or expected evil. The enemy fled at the first fire.

Arise, take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt. Matthew 2:13.

2. To depart; to leave; to hasten away.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7.

3. To avoid; to keep at a distance from.

FLEE fornication; flee from idolatry. 1 Corinthians 6:10.

To flee the question or from the question, in legislation, is said of a legislator who, when a question is to be put to the house, leaves his seat to avoid the dilemma of voting against his conscience, or giving an unpopular vote. In the phrases in which this verb appears to be transitive, there is really an ellipsis.