avoid
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
avoid
v 1: stay clear from; keep away from; keep out of the way of
someone or something; "Her former friends now avoid her"
[ant: {confront}, {face}, {face up}]
2: prevent the occurrence of; prevent from happening; "Let's
avoid a confrontation"; "head off a confrontation"; "avert a
strike" [syn: {debar}, {forefend}, {forfend}, {obviate},
{deflect}, {avert}, {head off}, {stave off}, {fend off},
{avoid}, {ward off}]
3: refrain from doing something; "She refrains from calling her
therapist too often"; "He should avoid publishing his wife's
memories"
4: refrain from certain foods or beverages; "I keep off drugs";
"During Ramadan, Muslims avoid tobacco during the day" [syn:
{keep off}, {avoid}]
5: declare invalid; "The contract was annulled"; "void a plea"
[syn: {invalidate}, {annul}, {quash}, {void}, {avoid},
{nullify}] [ant: {formalise}, {formalize}, {validate}]
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Avoid \A*void"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Avoided}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Avoiding}.] [OF. esvuidier, es (L. ex) + vuidier, voidier,
to empty. See {Void}, a.]
1. To empty. [Obs.] --Wyclif.
[1913 Webster]
2. To emit or throw out; to void; as, to avoid excretions.
[Obs.] --Sir T. Browne.
[1913 Webster]
3. To quit or evacuate; to withdraw from. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
Six of us only stayed, and the rest avoided
the room. --Bacon.
[1913 Webster]
4. To make void; to annul or vacate; to refute.
[1913 Webster]
How can these grants of the king's be avoided?
--Spenser.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
What need a man forestall his date of grief.
And run to meet what he would most avoid ? --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
He carefully avoided every act which could goad them
into open hostility. --Macaulay.
[1913 Webster]
6. To get rid of. [Obs.] --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
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.
--Blackstone.
[1913 Webster]
Syn: To escape; elude; evade; eschew.
Usage: 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.
[1913 Webster]
No man can pray from his heart to be kept from
temptation, if the take no care of himself to
avoid it. --Mason.
[1913 Webster]
So Chanticleer, who never saw a fox,
Yet shunned him as a sailor shuns the rocks.
--Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
82 Moby Thesaurus words for "avoid":
abstain, abstain from, avert, be stuck-up, bilk, blench, blink,
circumvent, cringe, debar, deflect, divert, do without, dodge,
double, draw back, duck, elude, escape, eschew, evade, exclude,
fade, fall back, fight shy of, flinch, forbear, forbid, forgo,
give place to, hang back, hold aloof, hold aloof from, hold back,
jib, keep aloof, keep away from, keep clear of, keep from,
keep hands off, keep off, keep remote from, leave alone, let alone,
let go by, make way for, never touch, not meddle with, not touch,
obviate, pass up, preclude, prevent, prohibit, pull back, quail,
recoil, reel back, refrain, refrain from, retreat, sheer off,
shrink, shrink back, shun, shy, sidestep, spare, stand aloof,
stand aloof from, start aside, start back, stay detached from,
steer clear of, swerve, turn aside, turn away from, ward off,
weasel, weasel out, wince, withhold
[email protected]