avoid

present singular third person avoids · participle present avoiding · participle past avoided · past avoided

1. transitiveTo try not to meet or communicate with (a person); to shun.
2. transitiveTo stay out of the way of (something harmful).

   I avoided the slap easily.

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   One town was flooded from the storm, while the other town avoided the storm.

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

   I try to avoid the company of gamblers.

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

   Comus

   1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] 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

   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.

   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

   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.

   2012 June 19, Phil McNulty, “England 1-0 Ukraine”, in BBC Sport

4. transitiveTo try not to do something or to have something happen.

   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.

   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

5. obsoletetransitiveTo make empty; to clear.

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

   c. 1395, Wycliffe Bible, Ecclesiasticus 13:6

6. transitivelawTo make void, to annul; to refute (especially a contract).

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

   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, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC, page 233

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   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.

   1395, Wycliffe Bible, Galatians 3:17

7. transitivelawTo defeat or evade; to invalidate.

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   […] 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.

   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

8. obsoletetransitiveTo emit or throw out; to void.

   […] a Toad piſſeth not, nor doe they containe thoſe urinary parts which are found in other animals, to avoid that ſerous excretion; […]

   1646, Thomas Browne, “Frogges, Toades, and Toad-stone”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], London: […] T[homas] H[arper] for Edward Dod, […], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 136

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   […] 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 […]

   1555, Gonzalus Ferdinandus Ouiedus [i.e., Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés], “[The Historie of the Weste Indies]. Of the Ilande of Cuba and other.”, in Peter Martyr of Angleria [i.e., Peter Martyr d’Anghiera], translated by Rycharde [i.e., Richard] Eden, The Decades of the Newe Worlde or West India, […], London: […] [Rycharde Jug for] Guilhelmi Powell, →OCLC, decade, folio 213, verso

9. obsoletetransitiveTo leave, evacuate; to leave as empty, to withdraw or come away from.

   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 […]

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   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

   1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xvij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book X

   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.

   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

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

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

10. obsoletetransitiveTo get rid of.

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

    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

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    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.

    1395, Wycliffe Bible, 1 Corinthians 13:11

    […] 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.

    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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 185, column 1

11. intransitiveobsoleteTo retire; to withdraw, depart, go away.

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

    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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v], pages 21–22

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    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.

    1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew iiij:[8–10], folios iiij, recto – iiij, verso

    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.

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

12. intransitiveobsoleteTo become void or vacant.