avoid

[uh-void]

See more synonyms for avoid on Thesaurus.com

verb (used with object)

to keep away from; keep clear of; shun: to avoid a person; to avoid taxes; to avoid danger.
to prevent from happening: to avoid falling.
Law. to make void or of no effect; invalidate.

Obsolete. to empty; eject or expel.

Origin of avoid

1250–30; Middle English avoiden < Anglo-French avoider, equivalent to a- a-⁴ + voider to void

Related formsa·void·a·ble, adjectivea·void·a·bly, adverba·void·er, nounnon·a·void·a·ble, adjectivenon·a·void·a·ble·ness, nounnon·a·void·a·bly, adverbun·a·void·ing, adjective

Can be confusedavoid evadeavoid ovoid

Synonym study

1. Avoid, escape mean to come through a potentially harmful or unpleasant experience, without suffering serious consequences. To avoid is to succeed in keeping away from something dangerous or undesirable: to avoid meeting an enemy. Escape suggests encountering peril but coming through it safely: to escape drowning.

Synonyms for avoid

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1. evade, elude, dodge.

Antonyms for avoid

1. confront, face, encounter.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for avoided

dodge, avert, sidestep, evade, bypass, escape, shun, shy, jump, abstain, hide, shake, circumvent, divert, eschew, deflect, obviate, elude, desist, recoil

Examples from the Web for avoided

Contemporary Examples of avoided

By allowing him to live, Marshal avoided the shame of killing an unarmed heir-apparent.
England’s Greatest Knight Puts ‘Game of Thrones’ to Shame
William O’Connor
December 9, 2014
Now, I think he avoided it because of something that happened a few months after he left.
Those Kansas City Blues: A Family History
Katie Baker
October 24, 2014
“Words of condemnation and marginalization were avoided,” he says.
Catholic Church Says It’s OK to be Gay, Sort Of
Barbie Latza Nadeau
October 17, 2014
Even as President Obama has avoided getting the military more involved in Iraq, the mission has gradually expanded.
Are American Troops Already Fighting on the Front Lines in Iraq?
Ford Sypher
September 2, 2014
I avoided him and to this day I have not seen him in person since then.
The Porn Party Where War Machine Went Ballistic
Aurora Snow
August 20, 2014

Historical Examples of avoided

If it may be avoided, I will not see the whole of your youth consumed in anxious watchings.
Philothea
Lydia Maria Child
I avoided the house of Mr Clayton, and absented myself from his chapel.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327
Various
The truth could not be concealed, nor the contemplation of it avoided.
Fragments from The Journal of a Solitary Man
Nathaniel Hawthorne
They are not necessary; they might be avoided; at their worst they could be tempered.
The Conquest of Fear
Basil King
Then the danger of getting too much coloring will be avoided.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 5
Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences

British Dictionary definitions for avoided

avoid

verb (tr)

to keep out of the way of
to refrain from doing
to prevent from happeningto avoid damage to machinery
law to make (a plea, contract, etc) void; invalidate; quash
obsolete to expel
obsolete to depart from

Derived Formsavoidable, adjectiveavoidably, adverbavoider, noun

Word Origin for avoid

C14: from Anglo-French avoider, from Old French esvuidier, from vuidier to empty, void

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for avoided

avoid

c.1300, from Anglo-French avoider "to clear out, withdraw (oneself)," partially anglicized from Old French esvuidier "to empty out," from es- "out" (see ex-) + vuidier "to be empty," from voide "empty, vast, wide, hollow, waste" (see void (adj.)). Originally a law term; modern sense of "have nothing to do with" also was in Middle English and corresponds to Old French eviter with which it was perhaps confused. Meaning "escape, evade" first attested 1520s. Related: Avoided; avoiding.