stave off
- to fend off or prevent from happening
Wiktionary
verb
- To prevent something from happening; to obviate or avert.
“He drank plenty of orange juice, hoping to stave off the cold making the rounds at the office.”
“[Enid] answer'd with such craft as women use, / Guilty or guiltless, to stave off a chance / That breaks upon them perilously, […]”