AVOID • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Avoid

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/əvˈɔɪd/ Listen

verb

Avoid v. t. (past & past part. avoided; pres. part. avoiding)

1.

To empty. (Obs.)

2.

To emit or throw out; to void; as, to avoid excretions. (Obs.)

3.

To quit or evacuate; to withdraw from. (Obs.) "Six of us only stayed, and the rest avoided the room."

4.

To make void; to annul or vacate; to refute. "How can these grants of the king's be avoided?"

5.

To keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor no to meet; to shun; to abstain from; as, to avoid the company of gamesters. "What need a man forestall his date of grief. And run to meet what he would most avoid?" "He carefully avoided every act which could goad them into open hostility."

6.

To get rid of. (Obs.)

7.

(Pleading) To defeat or evade; to invalidate. Thus, in a replication, the plaintiff may deny the defendant's plea, or confess it, and avoid it by stating new matter.

Synonyms: To escape; elude; evade; eschew. To Avoid, Shun. Avoid in its commonest sense means, to keep clear of, an extension of the meaning, to withdraw one's self from. It denotes care taken not to come near or in contact; as, to avoid certain persons or places. Shun is a stronger term, implying more prominently the idea of intention. The words may, however, in many cases be interchanged. "No man can pray from his heart to be kept from temptation, if the take no care of himself to avoid it." "So Chanticleer, who never saw a fox, Yet shunned him as a sailor shuns the rocks."

Avoid v. i.

1.

To retire; to withdraw. (Obs.) "David avoided out of his presence."

2.

(Law) To become void or vacant. (Obs.)

See images of 'Avoid'

Etymology of 'Avoid'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Avoid" Quotes from Famous Books

... Snowball in his life, and he would as soon have struck his own brother—but he must not be told that he couldn't. His face flamed and little Hotspur that he was, he drew his fist back and hit Chad full in the chest. Chad leaped back to avoid the blow, tumbling Snowball down the bank; the two clinched, and, while they tussled, Chad heard the other brother clambering over the rocks, the beat of hoofs coming toward him on the turf, and the ...

— The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come • John Fox

... consider the achievements of Koerner and Heinrich von Kleist in the field of the drama. In this both have been very active, but in order to avoid boredom for a time at least, I shall begin with the analysis of a piece by Kleist, choosing first a tragedy, his Prince of Homburg which, to be sure, is entitled simply "a drama" by its author. I do not know whether he did this because of the circumstances that the Prince, as ...

— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. IX - Friedrich Hebbel and Otto Ludwig • Various

... late suppers and later hours, and his unsuspected disposition to "cut loose," became twin marvels to Percival. He could not avoid contrasting this behaviour with his past preaching. After a few weeks he was forced to the charitable conclusion that Uncle Peter's faculties were failing. The exposure and hardships of the winter before had ...

— The Spenders - A Tale of the Third Generation • Harry Leon Wilson

... Sedley was unwilling that his son should associate with such boys as the Bunkers; and so much did Frank dislike their company that it was scarcely necessary to caution him to avoid them. ...

— The Boat Club - or, The Bunkers of Rippleton • Oliver Optic

... notice and introduced to new acquaintances so easily as the young scholar seemed to think; but she made up her mind, if he came at all, that she would prevent him from talking about their meeting at Madame Bonanni's, which she wished to avoid mentioning for the present. That would be easy enough, for a man of his tact would understand the slightest sign, and behave as if he had ...

— Fair Margaret - A Portrait • Francis Marion Crawford

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