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avoid. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
avoid, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
avoid in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
avoid you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
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”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /əˈvɔɪd/
- Hyphenation: a‧void
- Rhymes: -ɔɪd
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).
- I avoided the slap easily.
- One town was flooded from the storm, while the other town avoided the storm.
- to keep away from; to keep clear of; to stay away from
- I try to avoid the company of gamblers.
- 1637, John Milton, Comus, London: Humphrey Robinson, p. 13,
- What need a man forestall his date of griefe
- And run to meet what he would most avoid?
2012 June 19, Phil McNulty, “England 1-0 Ukraine”, in BBC Sport: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.
- To try not to do something or to have something happen
1953, James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain (A Laurel Book), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Co., published December 1985, →ISBN, part 1 (The Seventh Day), page 20: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.
- (transitive, obsolete) To make empty; to clear.
- (transitive, now law) To make void, to annul; to refute (especially a contract).
1395, Wycliffe Bible, Galatians 3:17: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.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, A View of the State of Ireland, Dublin: John Morrisson, 1809, reprint of the 1633 edition, p. 233,
- how can those graunts of the Kings be avoyded, without wronging of those lords, which had those lands and lordships given them?
- (transitive, law) To defeat or evade; to invalidate.
1768, William Blackstone, chapter 20, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book III (Of Private Wrongs), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 310:[…] 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.
- (transitive, obsolete) To emit or throw out; to void.
- 1577, Richard Eden (translator), The History of Trauayle in the West and East Indies by Peter Martyr d’Anghiera, London, “Of the ordinary nauigation from Spayne to the west Indies,” p. 224b,
- 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
1650, Thomas Browne, chapter 13, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: , 2nd edition, London: A Miller, for Edw Dod and Nath Ekins, , →OCLC, 3rd book, page 136:[…] a Toad pisseth not, nor doe they containe those urinary parts which are found in other animals, to avoid that serous excretion […]
- (transitive, obsolete) To leave, evacuate; to leave as empty, to withdraw or come away from.
1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xvij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book X: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- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- 1565, Thomas Stapleton (translator), The History of the Church of Englande. Compiled by Venerable Bede, Englishman, Antwerp, Book 5, Chapter 20, pp. 178b-179,
- the bishop commaunded al to auoide the chambre for an houre, and beganne to talke after this manner to his chaplin
- (transitive, obsolete) To get rid of.
1395, Wycliffe Bible, 1 Corinthians 13:11: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.
c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :[…] 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.
- (intransitive, obsolete) To retire; to withdraw, depart, go away.
c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :Pray you, poor gentleman, take up some other station; here’s no place for you; pray you, avoid:
- (intransitive, obsolete) To become void or vacant.
Usage notes
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
to try not to be hit; to give way
to keep away from
- Albanian: mënjanoj (sq)
- Arabic: تَجَنَّبَ (tajannaba)
- Egyptian Arabic: اتجنب (etganeb)
- Armenian: խուսափել (hy) (xusapʻel)
- Belarusian: уніка́ць impf (unikácʹ), ўніка́ць impf (ŭnikácʹ), уні́кнуць pf (uníknucʹ), ўні́кнуць pf (ŭníknucʹ); ухіля́цца (uxiljácca), ўхіля́цца impf (ŭxiljácca), ухілі́цца (uxilícca), ўхілі́цца pf (ŭxilícca)
- Bulgarian: отбягвам (bg) (otbjagvam), страня от (stranja ot)
- Burmese: ကြဉ် (my) (krany)
- Catalan: evitar (ca)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 避免 (zh) (bìmiǎn), 回避 (zh) (huíbì), 免除 (zh) (miǎnchú)
- Czech: vyhnout se pf vyhýbat se impf
- Dutch: vermijden (nl)
- Esperanto: eviti (eo)
- Estonian: vältima, hoiduma
- Finnish: välttää (fi), karttaa (fi), väistää (fi)
- French: éviter (fr), fuir (fr)
- Galician: evitar (gl)
- Georgian: არიდება (arideba), აცილება (acileba)
- German: meiden (de), fernbleiben (de) (exalted)
- Gothic: 𐌱𐌹𐍅𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (biwandjan)
- Greek: αποφεύγω (el) (apofévgo)
- Ancient: περιφεύγω (peripheúgō)
- Hungarian: elkerül (hu), kerül (hu)
- Irish: seachain
- Italian: evitare (it)
- Japanese: 避ける (ja) (sakeru), 免れる (ja) (manukareru), 斎む (imu)
- Khmer: ជៀសវាង (ciəhviəng)
- Korean: 피하다 (ko) (pihada), 꺼리다 (ko) (kkeorida)
- Lao: ຫຼີກລ້ຽງ (līk līang)
- Latin: vītō, ēvītō
- Maori: tūraha, hohoni
- Mongolian: зайлсхийх (mn) (zajlsxiix)
- Norwegian: unngå (no)
- Occitan: evitar (oc)
- Old English: forbūgan
- Persian: پرهیزیدن (fa) (parhizidan)
- Polish: unikać (pl) (5), uniknąć (pl) pf
- Portuguese: evitar (pt)
- Romanian: evita (ro), ocoli (ro)
- Russian: избега́ть (ru) impf (izbegátʹ), избежа́ть (ru) pf (izbežátʹ), уклоня́ться (ru) impf (uklonjátʹsja), уклони́ться (ru) pf (uklonítʹsja)
- Scottish Gaelic: seachain
- Shan: ငိူင်ႉဝႄႈ (shn) (ngô̰eng wāae)
- Slovak: vyhnúť sa pf vyhýbať sa impf
- Spanish: evitar (es)
- Swedish: undvika (sv)
- Thai: หลีกเลี่ยง (th) (lìik-lîiang)
- Turkish: kaçınmak (tr)
- Ukrainian: уника́ти impf (unykáty), уни́кнути pf (unýknuty); ухиля́тися impf (uxyljátysja), ухили́тися pf (uxylýtysja)
- Vietnamese: tránh (vi), tránh xa, né (vi)
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to try not to do something
(law) to defeat or evade; to invalidate
Further reading
- “avoid”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.