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Synonyms

steer clear of

Idioms  

  1. Stay away from, avoid, as in Dad warned us to steer clear of Dr. Smith and his poor advice. This idiom alludes to guiding a vessel away from some obstacle. Its figurative use was first recorded in 1723.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Whether the above is enough for you to steer clear of NordVPN, I’ll leave up to you.

From Salon • Mar. 27, 2026

Qatar, the world's second-largest LNG producer, has seen LNG exports plunge as fuel tankers steer clear of the Strait of Hormuz.

From Barron's • Mar. 27, 2026

It advises parents to steer clear of fast-paced videos and use screens together where possible.

From BBC • Mar. 26, 2026

Hopkins and Treichel also tried to steer clear of math, although they assembled their book using a spreadsheet instead of a traditional word-processing program.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 16, 2026

Nigro acknowledged that Bloom was a little scary and said he’d try to help us steer clear of him.

From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.