Definition of "avoid" in English

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. (transitive) To keep away from; to keep clear of; to stay away from.

   • I try to avoid the company of gamblers.

4. (transitive) 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.

6. (transitive, now law) To make void, to annul; to refute (especially a contract).

7. (transitive, law) To defeat or evade; to invalidate.

8. (transitive, obsolete) To emit or throw out; to void.

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 […]

10. (transitive, obsolete) To get rid of.

11. (intransitive, obsolete) To retire; to withdraw, depart, go away.

12. (intransitive, obsolete) To become void or vacant.