walk away

See also: walkaway and Walkaway

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

walk away (third-person singular simple present walks away, present participle walking away, simple past and past participle walked away)

  1. (idiomatic) To withdraw from a problematic situation.
    Company lawyers told him to walk away from the deal.
    • 2022 September 21, Chris Green tells Nick Brodrick, “It's absolutely my favourite train”, in RAIL, number 966, page 35:
      Green adds: "Luckily, nobody did walk away. Railtrack stayed with it, so did the government, so did the Strategic Rail Authority.
    • 2025 June 11, Stuart Heritage, “‘Please walk away from Harry Potter’: why the stars of HBO’s new TV show are in for decades of social media hell”, in The Guardian‎[1], →ISSN:
      When John Lithgow was announced as Dumbledore, he revealed that a friend had sent him a link to an article entitled: “An open letter to John Lithgow: Please walk away from Harry Potter.”
  2. (intransitive, colloquial, euphemistic) Of an object, to go missing or be stolen. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
  3. To free oneself from a debt such as a mortgage by abandoning the collateral to the lender. To make a strategic default.
  4. (idiomatic) To survive a challenging or dangerous situation without harm.
    The football team walked away with a 1-0 victory.
  5. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see walk,‎ away.
    I took one last look at the house and walked away.
    • 2012, BioWare, Mass Effect 3 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Tuchanka:
      Shepard: Mordin, walk away.
      Mordin: Can't do that, Shepard.
      Shepard: I don't have a choice here. Walk away, or I will fire.

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