Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1300-1400
Language: Old French
Origin: esvuidier, from vuidier 'to empty'

avoid

 verb
     
a‧void S2 W1 [transitive]
1 to prevent something bad from happening:
Road safety is taught to young children to avoid road accidents.
It is important to take measures to avoid the risk of fire.
avoid doing something
The refugees left to avoid getting bombed.
Alan narrowly avoided an accident.
2 to stay away from someone or something, or not use something:
Everyone seemed to be avoiding Nick.
She carefully avoided his eyes (=did not look directly at his face).
Pregnant women should avoid certain foods such as raw eggs.
Why did you speak to him? You usually avoid him like the plague (=try hard to avoid him).
3 to deliberately not do something, especially something wrong, dangerous, or harmful:
There are ways of legally avoiding taxes.
avoid doing something
You should avoid over-spending in the first half of the year.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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