avoid

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”).

• IPA^(key): /əˈvɔɪd/

• Audio (US):

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• Hyphenation: a‧void
• Rhymes: -ɔɪd

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

1. (transitive) To try not to meet or communicate with (a person); to shun.
2. (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.

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

   I try to avoid the company of gamblers.

   • 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634:  [Comus], London: [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, , published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus:  (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC, page 13:

     What need a man foreſtall his date of griefe / And run to meet what he would moſt avoid?

   • 1851, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XIII, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume III, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 340:

     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.

   • 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.

4. 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.

5. (transitive, obsolete) To make empty; to clear.
   • c. 1395, Wycliffe Bible, Ecclesiasticus 13:6:

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

6. (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 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande , Dublin: Societie of Stationers, , →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland  (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: Society of Stationers, Hibernia Press, y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC, page 233:

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

7. (transitive, law) To defeat or evade; to invalidate.
   • 1768, William Blackstone, “Of Pleading”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book III (Of Private Wrongs), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, pages 309–310:

     […] 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.

8. (transitive, obsolete) To emit or throw out; to void.
   • 1555, Gonzalus Ferdinandus Ouiedus [i.e., Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés], “. Of the Ilande of Cuba and other.”, in Peter Martyr of Angleria [i.e., Peter Martyr d’Anghiera], translated by Rycharde Eden [i.e., Richard Eden], The Decades of the Newe Worlde or West India, , London: [Rycharde Jug for] Guilhelmi Powell, →OCLC, decade, folio 213, verso:

     […] 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 […]

   • 1646, Thomas Browne, “Frogges, Toades, and Toad-stone”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: , London: T H for Edward Dod, , →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; […]

9. (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

   • 1587 January, Raphael Holinshed, “Henrie the third, the eldest sonne of king Iohn”, in The Third Volume of Chronicles, Beginning at Duke William the Norman, Commonlie Called the Conqueror; , 2nd edition, volume III, London: [Henry Denham] at the expenses of Iohn Harison, George Bishop, Rafe Newberie, Henrie Denham, and Thomas Woodcocke, →OCLC, page 202, column 2:

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

   • 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis , “New Atlantis. A Worke Vnfinished.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. , London: William Rawley ; rinted by J H for William Lee , →OCLC, page 8:

     Wherupon ſixe of vs onely ſtaied, and the reſt auoyded the Roome.

10. (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.

    • 1587 January, Raphael Holinshed, “The oration of king Richard the third to the chiefteins of his armie”, in The Third Volume of Chronicles, Beginning at Duke William the Norman, Commonlie Called the Conqueror; , 2nd edition, volume III, London: [Henry Denham] at the expenses of Iohn Harison, George Bishop, Rafe Newberie, Henrie Denham, and Thomas Woodcocke, →OCLC, page 756, column 2:

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

    • 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, , page 185, column 1:

      […] the ſpirit of my Father, which I thinke is within mee, begins to mutinie againſt this ſeruitude. I will no longer endure it, though yet I know no wiſe remedy how to auoid it.

11. (intransitive, obsolete) To retire; to withdraw, depart, go away.
    • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt  (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew iiij:[8–10], folios iiij, recto – iiij, verso:

      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.

    • 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, , pages 21–22:

      Pray you poore Gentleman, take vp ſome other ſtation: Heere’s no place for you, pray you auoid: Come.

    • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, 1 Samuel 18:11, signature Dd, recto, column 2:

      And Saul caſt the iauelin; foꝛ hee ſaid, I will ſmite Dauid euen to the wall with it: and Dauid auoided out of his pꝛeſence twice.

12. (intransitive, obsolete) To become void or vacant.

• This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing). See Appendix:English catenative verbs.

• (to keep away from): See Thesaurus:avoid

• “avoid”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.