make a break for it
verb1
Idiomatic To attempt to escape; to flee; to run away.
- "By Gar! it was as well that he made a break for it before the note reached us! I guess he won't show his face in this valley again."1915, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 3, in The Valley of Fear:
- To restrain runaways who are too fragile to survive on the outside, Administrator Edward Farmilant of Chicago's Somerset nursing home gave the front door guard pictures of 36 patients who might make a break for it.2006 July 12, “Behavior: The New Runaways: Old Folks”, in Time: