avoid

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”).

verb

1. (transitive) To try not to meet or communicate with (a person); to shun
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, What need a man forestall his date of griefe And run to meet what he would most avoid?
   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. 1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 13, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume 3, Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, page 309
   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. June 19, 2012, Phil McNulty, “England 1-0 Ukraine”, in BBC Sport
4. To try not to do something or to have something happen
5. (transitive, obsolete) To make empty; to clear.
   If thou haue, he shal lyue with thee, and auoide thee out ; and he shal not sorewen vpon thee. c. 1395,, Wycliffe Bible, Ecclesiasticus 13:6
6. (transitive, now law) 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. 1395, Wycliffe Bible, Galatians 3:17
   1596, Edmund Spenser, A View of the State of Ireland, Dublin: John Morrisson, 1809, reprint of the 1633 edition, p. 233, […] how can those graunts of the Kings be avoyded, without wronging of those lords, which had those lands and lordships given them?
7. (transitive, law) To defeat or evade; to invalidate.
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, […] 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 […]
9. (transitive, obsolete) To leave, evacuate; to leave as empty, to withdraw or come away from.
   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 […]
   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. 1587, Raphael Holinshed et al., “Henrie the third”, in The First and Second Volumes of Chronicles, page 202
   Whereupon six of us only stayed, and the rest avoided the Room. 1627, Francis Bacon, New Atlantis, London, published c. 1658, page 7
10. (transitive, obsolete) 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. 1395, Wycliffe Bible, 1 Corinthians 13:11
    […] expell out of your thoughts all douts, auoid out of your minds all feare; and like valiant champions aduance foorth your standards […] 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, page 756
11. (intransitive, obsolete) To retire; to withdraw, depart, go away.
12. (intransitive, obsolete) To become void or vacant.