avoidance

Etymology

From Middle English avoidaunce, from avoid + -ance.

noun

  1. The act of avoiding or shunning; keeping clear of.
  2. (law, obsolete) The act of annulling; annulment.
  3. (obsolete) The act of becoming vacant, or the state of being vacant, specifically used for the state of a benefice becoming void by the death, deprivation, or resignation of the incumbent.
  4. (obsolete) The act of dismissing a person.
  5. (obsolete) The act of quitting a position or benefice.
  6. (obsolete) The course by which anything (especially water) is carried off.
    In the Upper Gallery too I wish that there may be, if the Place will yield it, some Fountains running in divers Places from the Wall, with some fine Avoidances. a. 1626, Francis Bacon, “XLV. Of Building”, in The essays, or councils, civil and moral[…]with a table of the colours of good and evil, and a discourse of The wisdom of the ancients, published 1696, page 122

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