avoid

verb

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”).

1. To try not to meet or communicate with (a person); to shun.
2. 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.”

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

4. To 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.”

5. To make empty; to clear.

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

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

   “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.”

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

7. To defeat or evade; to invalidate.

   “[…] 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. To emit or throw out; to void.

   “[…] 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 […]”

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

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

   “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”

   “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 […]”

10. To get rid of.

    “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.”

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

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

    “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.”

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

12. To become void or vacant.