avoid

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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 < Vulgar Latin *vocitum, ultimately related to Latin vacuus. Displaced native Old English forbūgan (literally to bend away from).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /əˈvɔɪd/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Hyphenation: a‧void
  • Rhymes: -ɔɪd

Verb

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), , edited by H Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: , before the Right Honorable, Iohn Earle of Bridgewater, Vicount Brackly, Lord President of Wales, and One of His Maiesties Most Honorable Privie Counsell.">…] , London: ">…] 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.
  5. (transitive, obsolete) To make empty; to clear.
  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 , “. Of the Ilande of Cuba and other.”, in Peter Martyr of Angleria , translated by Rycharde Eden , The Decades of the Newe Worlde or West India, , London: 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.
  10. (transitive, obsolete) To get rid of.
  11. (intransitive, obsolete) To retire; to withdraw, depart, go away.
  12. (intransitive, obsolete) To become void or vacant.

Usage notes

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

  • avoid”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.