Crossword Genius

Avoids predicament, heading away when rounding headland (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

escapes

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'avoids' is the definition.
(escaping is a kind of avoiding)

'predicament heading away when rounding headland' is the wordplay.
'predicament' becomes 'es' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'heading away' means to remove the first letter (the word's 'head' is removed).
'when' becomes 'as' (eg 'when I walked' means 'as I walked').
'rounding' means one lot of letters goes inside another (some letters go round others).
'headland' becomes 'cape' (I've seen this before).
'as' with its initial letter taken away is 's'.
'es'+'s'='ess'
'ess' going around 'cape' is 'ESCAPES'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for escapes that I've seen before include "Gets away from captivity" , "Flights" , "Evades" , "Breaks loose" , "Flees" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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