Elude /(?)/

imp. & p. p. Eluded; p. pr. & vb. n. Eluding

1. To avoid slyly, by artifice, stratagem, or dexterity; to escape from in a covert manner; to mock by an unexpected escape; to baffle; as, to elude an officer; to elude detection, inquiry, search, comprehension; to elude the force of an argument or a blow.

   Me gentle Delia beckons from the plain, Then, hid in shades, eludes he eager swain.

   The transition from fetichism to polytheism seems a gradual process of which the stages elude close definition.