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Avoid

//əˈvɔɪd// verb

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To try not to meet or communicate with (a person); to shun. transitive
  2. 2
    stay clear from; keep away from; keep out of the way of someone or something wordnet
  3. 3
    To stay out of the way of (something harmful). transitive

    "I avoided the slap easily."

  4. 4
    refrain from certain foods or beverages wordnet
  5. 5
    To keep away from; to keep clear of; to stay away from. transitive

    "I try to avoid the company of gamblers."

Show 12 more definitions
  1. 6
    prevent the occurrence of; prevent from happening; to protect from or to keep away anything undesirable; to ward off wordnet
  2. 7
    To try not to do something or to have something happen. transitive

    "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."

  3. 8
    refrain from doing something wordnet
  4. 9
    To make empty; to clear. obsolete, transitive

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

  5. 10
    declare invalid wordnet
  6. 11
    To make void, to annul; to refute (especially a contract). transitive

    "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."

  7. 12
    To defeat or evade; to invalidate. transitive

    "[…] 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."

  8. 13
    To emit or throw out; to void. obsolete, transitive

    "[…] the citie of Memi where is a great caue oꝛ denne in the which is a ſpꝛynge oꝛ fountayne that continually auoydethe a great quantitie of Bitumen […]"

  9. 14
    To leave, evacuate; to leave as empty, to withdraw or come away from. obsolete, transitive

    "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"

  10. 15
    To get rid of. obsolete, transitive

    "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."

  11. 16
    To retire; to withdraw, depart, go away. intransitive, obsolete

    "The devyll […] ſayde vnto hym: all theſe will I geve the / iff thou wilt faull doune and woꝛſhip me. Thẽ ſayde Ieſus vnto hym. Avoyd Satan."

  12. 17
    To become void or vacant. intransitive, obsolete

Etymology

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

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