AVOID | Meaning In The Cambridge English Dictionary

Meaning of avoid in English avoidverb [ T ] uk /əˈvɔɪd/ us /əˈvɔɪd/ Add to word list Add to word list B1 to stay away from someone or something: anxious to avoid I'm anxious to avoid the motorway at rush hour. I try to avoid supermarkets on Saturdays - they're always so busy. Do you think Lukas is avoiding me? I haven't seen him all day. to avoid someone or something

• avoidHave you been trying to avoid me?
• steer clear ofI suggest steering clear of yellow snow.
• keep/stay clear ofKeep clear of her - she’s got flu.
• stay away fromThe experience was so bad that she stayed away from men for two years.
• shunThe best companies are run by people who shun the limelight.
• shunYou'll be shunned and totally isolated if you don't join in.

See more results » B2 to prevent something from happening or to not allow yourself to do something: avoid something at all costs Unnecessary paperwork should be avoided (= prevented) at all costs.narrowly avoid The plane narrowly avoided disaster when one of the engines cut out on take-off. [ + -ing verb ] I try to avoid going shopping on Saturdays. The report studiously avoided any mention of the controversial plan. I left the pub to avoid a fight (= prevent a fight from happening). to avoid doing something

• avoidAvoid swimming in areas where sharks are known to congregate.
• evadePlease don’t think I’m trying to evade my responsibility.
• dodgeHe tried to dodge his military service.
• run away fromI didn't often run away from difficult decisions.
• shrink fromI've never been one to shrink from a challenge.
• sidestepThis is not a responsibility you can sidestep.

See more results » to prevent something from happening

• preventVaccination will prevent the spread of the disease.
• avoidLabel the boxes to avoid confusion.
• stopThis should stop any further trouble.
• avertWe had to act quickly to avert disaster.
• prohibitBehavioural problems in the classroom prohibit learning.
• checkChildren are being vaccinated in an attempt to check the spread of the disease.

See more results »

• If we set off early tomorrow morning we'll avoid most of the traffic.
• The bus driver swerved to avoid hitting the cyclists.
• We need to examine how an accident like this can be avoided in the future.
• Try to avoid foods which contain a lot of fat.
• He took a different route which avoids the city centre.

Moving in order to avoid contact

• avoid something like the plague idiom
• avoidance
• bypass
• circumnavigate
• clear
• dodge
• duck
• duck and weave idiom
• evasive action
• evasively
• evasiveness
• fall
• fall back phrasal verb
• jump
• shrug away phrasal verb
• sidestep
• skirt
• steer
• steer clear of someone/something idiom
• weave

See more results »

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Avoiding action Preventing and impeding

Idiom

avoid something like the plague (Definition of avoid from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

avoid | American Dictionary

avoidverb [ T ] us /əˈvɔɪd/ Add to word list Add to word list to stay away from someone or something, or prevent something from happening, or not allow yourself to do something: Do you think Robert is avoiding me? I haven’t seen him for a month. I try to avoid going shopping on Saturdays because the stores are so crowded. If you want to lose weight, avoid eating between meals.

avoidance

noun [ U ] us /əˈvɔɪ·dəns/ The avoidance of injury is more important than winning a game. (Definition of avoid from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

avoid | Business English

avoidverb [ T ] uk /əˈvɔɪd/ us Add to word list Add to word list to try to prevent something bad from happening: A spokeswoman for the company said it was hoping to avoid industrial action. Understanding differing viewpoints is a good start toward avoiding conflict in the workplace. to try not to do something, or to try to stay away from something: The government avoided the mistakes they made in the past.avoid doing sth Credit cards can be a source of free credit if you can organize payments within the stipulated time limits, so as to avoid paying interest. (Definition of avoid from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of avoid

avoid Excessive lettering should be avoided on the figure and should be inserted in the legend. From the Cambridge English Corpus The next section introduces another device called a lexical entry automaton, which is an elaborated form of trunks, for avoiding the computability problem. From the Cambridge English Corpus At this stage, acknowledgements, self-references and other forms of self-identification should be avoided. From the Cambridge English Corpus To estimate a smooth function, while avoiding overfitting the data, we can impose a smoothing penalty. From the Cambridge English Corpus In fact, in both pragmatics and sociolinguistics more generally, the term "ritual" is usually avoided. From the Cambridge English Corpus The synonyms file provides more specific information so that the generation of certain irrelevant concepts can be avoided. From the Cambridge English Corpus Many of the workgroups struggled with the challenge of keeping the coding ' general purpose ' and avoiding theory-specific feature tags. From the Cambridge English Corpus The discussion was not always easy to control but, in order to move ahead with the work, this couldn't be avoided. From the Cambridge English Corpus The sound material cannot then be avoided, being the voice of the processes of nature. From the Cambridge English Corpus Spatial separation is one of these guidelines (in addition to avoiding frequency masking and maintaining some temporal-textural difference between simultaneous sounds). From the Cambridge English Corpus The status of arrangement today, however, is quite different; in new music, arrangement is mostly avoided and perceived as unfashionable. From the Cambridge English Corpus Computing interferences are avoided by imposing structural constraints under the form of simple rules. From the Cambridge English Corpus Both the individual and the community approach were above all driven by the aim of avoiding this major risk. From the Cambridge English Corpus As with the universal property, the primary application of the fusion property is as a proof principle that avoids the need for inductive proofs. From the Cambridge English Corpus In most respects the two approaches (parsimony or avoiding a possible omitted variable problem) trade off. From the Cambridge English Corpus See all examples of avoid These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors. What is the pronunciation of avoid?

Translations of avoid

in Chinese (Traditional) 避開, 逃避, 避免… See more in Chinese (Simplified) 避开, 逃避, 避免… See more in Spanish evitar… See more in Portuguese evitar… See more in Marathi in Japanese in Turkish in French in Catalan in Dutch in Tamil in Hindi in Gujarati in Danish in Swedish in Malay in German in Norwegian in Urdu in Ukrainian in Telugu in Bengali in Czech in Indonesian in Thai in Vietnamese in Polish in Korean in Italian एखाद्यापासून किंवा कशापासून दूर राहण्यासाठी, काहीतरी होण्यापासून रोखण्यासाठी किंवा स्वतःला काहीतरी करू न देण्यासाठी… See more ～を避ける, よける, ～を防止する… See more kaçınmak, sakınmak, uzak durmak… See more éviter, échapper à, éviter (de)… See more evitar, defugir… See more vermijden… See more யாரோ அல்லது ஏதோவொன்றிலிருந்து விலகி இருக்க, ஏதாவது நடக்காமல் தடுக்க அல்லது ஏதாவது செய்ய உங்களை அனுமதிக்காமல் இருத்தல்… See more (किसी व्यक्ति या वस्तु से) दूर रहना, बचना या रोकना… See more કોઈ વ્યક્તિ કે વસ્તુથી દૂર રહેવું, ટાળવું… See more undgå… See more undvika… See more elak… See more ausweichen, vermeiden… See more unngå, holde seg på avstand fra, forhindre… See more کترانا, گریز کرنا, بچنا… See more уникати… See more ఒకరి లేక ఒకదానినుండి దూరంగా ఉండటం, తప్పించుకోవడం, నివారించడం… See more কাউকে বা কিছু থেকে দূরে থাকতে, এড়িয়ে যাওয়া… See more vyhnout se… See more menghindari… See more หลีกเลี่ยง… See more tránh… See more unikać, omijać, uniknąć… See more -을 피하다, -을 막다… See more evitare… See more Need a translator?

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avocado toast avocation avocational avocationally avoid avoid something like the plague idiom avoidable avoidably avoidance {{#randomImageQuizHook.filename}} {{#randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} Test your vocabulary with our fun image quizzes Try a quiz now {{/randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} {{^randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} {{/randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} {{/randomImageQuizHook.filename}}

More meanings of avoid

• avoid something like the plague idiom

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• avoid something like the plague idiom

Word of the Day

contest

UK /kənˈtest/ US /kənˈtest/

If you contest a formal statement, a claim, a judge's decision, or a legal case, you say formally that it is wrong or unfair and try to have it changed.

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