Word definition: avoid

Etimology


From Middle English avoiden, from Anglo-Norman avoider, Old French esvuidier (“to empty out”), from es- + vuidier, from Vulgar Latin *vocitāre < Late Latin vocitus < vocivus, ultimately related to Latin vacuus. Displaced native Old English forbūgan (literally “to bend away from”).

verb


avoid (third-person singular simple present avoids, present participle avoiding, simple past and past participle avoided)

(transitive) To try not to meet or communicate with (a person); to shun

(transitive) To stay out of the way of (something harmful).

to keep away from; to keep clear of; to stay away from

To try not to do something or to have something happen

(transitive, obsolete) To make empty; to clear.

(transitive, now law) To make void, to annul; to refute (especially a contract).

(transitive, law) To defeat or evade; to invalidate.

(transitive, obsolete) To emit or throw out; to void.

(transitive, obsolete) To leave, evacuate; to leave as empty, to withdraw or come away from.

(transitive, obsolete) To get rid of.

(intransitive, obsolete) To retire; to withdraw, depart, go away.

(intransitive, obsolete) To become void or vacant.

Examples


I avoided the slap easily.

One town was flooded from the storm, while the other town avoided the storm.

I try to avoid the company of gamblers.

What need a man forestall his date of griefe

And run to meet what he would most avoid?

He still hoped that he might be able to win some chiefs who remained neutral; and he carefully avoided every act which could goad them into open hostility.

England could have met world and European champions Spain but that eventuality was avoided by Sweden's 2-0 win against France, and Rooney's first goal in a major tournament since scoring twice in the 4-2 victory over Croatia in Lisbon at Euro 2004.

Then he realized, by the immobility of the other children and by the way they avoided looking at him, that it was he who was selected for punishment.

If thou haue, he shal lyue with thee, and auoide thee out ; and he shal not sorewen vpon thee.

But Y seie, this testament is confermed of God; the lawe that was maad after foure hundrid and thritti yeer, makith not the testament veyn to auoide awei the biheest.

[…] how can those graunts of the Kings be avoyded, without wronging of those lords, which had those lands and lordships given them?

[…] in an action for trespassing upon land whereof the plaintiff is seised, if the defendant shews a title to the land by descent, and that therefore he had a right to enter, and gives colour to the plaintiff, the plaintiff may either traverse and totally deny the fact of the descent; or he may confess and avoid it, by replying, that true it is that such descent happened, but that since the descent the defendant himself demised the lands to the plaintiff for term of life.

[…] the citie of Memi, where is a great Caue or Denne, in the whiche is a spryng or fountayne that contynually auoydeth a great quantitie of Bitumen […]

[…] a Toad pisseth not, nor doe they containe those urinary parts which are found in other animals, to avoid that serous excretion […]

Anone they encountred to gyders / and he with the reed shelde smote hym soo hard that he bare hym ouer to the erthe / There with anone came another Knyght of the castel / and he was smyten so sore that he auoyded his fadel

[…] the bishop commaunded al to auoide the chambre for an houre, and beganne to talke after this manner to his chaplin […]

This yeare also was a proclamation made in London, and throughout all the realme, that all strangers should auoid the land before the feast of saint Michaell then next following except those that came with merchandize.

Whereupon six of us only stayed, and the rest avoided the Room.

Whanne Y was a litil child, Y spak as a litil child, Y vndurstood as a litil child, Y thouyte as a litil child; but whanne Y was maad a man, Y auoidide tho thingis that weren of a litil child.

[…] expell out of your thoughts all douts, auoid out of your minds all feare; and like valiant champions aduance foorth your standards […]

[…] the spirit of my father, which I think is within me, begins to mutiny against this servitude. I will no longer endure it, though yet I know no wise remedy how to avoid it.

The devyll […] sayde to hym: all these will I geue ye, if thou wilt faull doune and worship me. Then sayde Iesus unto hym. Avoyd Satan.

Pray you, poor gentleman, take up some other station; here’s no place for you; pray you, avoid:

And Saul cast the javelin; for he said, I will smite David even to the wall with it. And David avoided out of his presence twice.

Related words


synonyms

(to keep away from): See Thesaurus:avoid

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