avoid

English

Etymology

From Middle English avoiden, from Anglo-Norman avoider, Old French esvuidier (“to empty out”), from es- + vuidier, from Vulgar Latin *vocitāre < Late Latin vocitus < vocivus, 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

   • Try definition

     To attempt; to endeavour. Followed by infinitive. (1 of 25 try definitions)

   • Meet definition

     To make contact (with) while in proximity.

     2. To come face to face with by accident; to encounter. (1 of 18 meet definitions)

   • Communicate definition

     To impart

     1. To impart or transmit (information or knowledge) to someone; to make known, to tell. (1 of 10 communicate definitions)

   • Shun definition

     (1 of 8 shun definitions)
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.

   • 1637, John Milton, Comus, London: Humphrey Robinson, p. 13,^[1]

     What need a man forestall his date of griefe

     And run to meet what he would most avoid?

   • 1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 13, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second‎^[2], volume 3, Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, page 309:

     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.

   • Keep definition

     To continue in (a course or mode of action); to not intermit or fall from; to uphold or maintain. (1 of 27 keep definitions)

   • Clear definition

     Transparent in colour. (1 of 20 clear definitions)
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.

   • Empty definition

     Devoid of content; containing nothing or nobody; vacant. (1 of 10 empty definitions)
6. (transitive, now law) To make void, to annul; to refute (especially a contract).
   • 1395, Wycliffe Bible‎^[3], 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, Edmund Spenser, A View of the State of Ireland, Dublin: John Morrisson, 1809, reprint of the 1633 edition, p. 233,^[4]

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

   • Law definition

     The body of binding rules and regulations, customs, and standards established in a community by its legislative and judicial authorities. (1 of 21 law definitions)

   • Annul definition

     To formally revoke the validity of. (1 of 2 annul definitions)

   • Refute definition

     To prove (something) to be false or incorrect. (1 of 2 refute definitions)

   • Contract definition

     An agreement between two or more parties, to perform a specific job or work order, often temporary or of fixed duration and usually governed by a written agreement. (1 of 6 contract definitions)
7. (transitive, law) To defeat or evade; to invalidate.
   • 1765–1769, William Blackstone, chapter 20, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, [https:// page 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.

   • Defeat definition

     To overcome in battle or contest. (1 of 4 defeat definitions)

   • Evade definition

     To get away from by cunning; to avoid by using dexterity, subterfuge, address, or ingenuity; to cleverly escape from (1 of 3 evade definitions)

   • Invalidate definition

     To make invalid. Especially applied to contract law. (1 of 3 invalidate definitions)
8. (transitive, obsolete) To emit or throw out; to void.
   • 1577, Richard Eden (translator), The History of Trauayle in the West and East Indies [De Orbo Novo, Decades 1-3] by Peter Martyr d’Anghiera, London, “Of the ordinary nauigation from Spayne to the west Indies,” p. 224b,^[5]

     […] the citie of Memi, where is a great Caue or Denne, in the whiche is a spryng or fountayne that contynually auoydeth a great quantitie of Bitumen […]

   • 1650, Thomas Browne, chapter 13, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →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 […]

   • Emit definition

     To send out or give off. (1 of 2 emit definitions)

   • Void definition

     Containing nothing; empty; not occupied or filled. (1 of 8 void definitions)
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,^[6]

     […] the bishop commaunded al to auoide the chambre for an houre, and beganne to talke after this manner to his chaplin […]

   • 1587, Raphael Holinshed et al., “Henrie the third”, in The First and Second Volumes of Chronicles‎^[7], page 202:

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

   • 1627, Francis Bacon, New Atlantis‎^[8], London, published c. 1658, page 7:

     Whereupon six of us only stayed, and the rest avoided the Room.

   • Leave definition

     To have a consequence or remnant.

     1. To cause or allow (something) to remain as available; to refrain from taking (something) away; to stop short of consuming or otherwise depleting (something) entirely. (1 of 15 leave definitions)

   • Evacuate definition

     To leave or withdraw from; to quit; to retire from (1 of 6 evacuate definitions)

   • Withdraw definition

     1. To draw or pull (something) away or back from its original position or situation.
        1. To remove (someone or oneself) from a position or situation; specifically , to remove (soldiers) from a battle or position where they are stationed.
        2. To draw or pull (a bolt, curtain, veil, or other object) aside.
     2. To take away or take back (something previously given or permitted); to remove, to retract.
     3. To cause or help (someone) to stop taking an addictive drug or substance; to dry out.
     4. To take (one's eyes) off something; to look away.
     5. 1. To disregard (something) as belonging to a certain group.
        2. To remove (a topic) from discussion or inquiry.
        3. To stop (a course of action, proceedings, etc.)
        4. To take back (a comment, something written, etc.); to recant, to retract. (1 of 21 withdraw definitions)
10. (transitive, obsolete) To get rid of.
    • 1395, Wycliffe Bible‎^[9], 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, Raphael Holinshed et al., “The oration of king Richard the third to the chiefteins of his armie”, in The First and Second Volumes of Chronicles‎^[10], page 756:

      […] expell out of your thoughts all douts, auoid out of your minds all feare; and like valiant champions aduance foorth 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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

      […] the spirit of my father, which I think is within me, begins to mutiny against this servitude. I will no longer endure it, though yet I know no wise remedy how to avoid 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 ]:

      The devyll […] sayde to hym: all these will I geue ye, if thou wilt faull doune and worship me. Then sayde Iesus unto 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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v]:

      Pray you, poor gentleman, take up some other station; here’s no place for you; pray you, avoid:

    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 18:11:

      And Saul cast the javelin; for he said, I will smite David even to the wall with it. And David avoided out of his presence twice.

    • Retire definition

      To stop working on a permanent basis, usually because of old age or illness. (1 of 11 retire definitions)

    • Depart definition

      To leave. (1 of 9 depart definitions)

    • Go Away definition

      A command encouraging someone to leave.
12. (intransitive, obsolete) To become void or vacant.

Usage notes

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

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

• avoid like the plague
• avoidable
• avoidance
• avoider

Translations

Further reading

• “avoid”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.