▪ I. avoid, v.
(əˈvɔɪd)
Forms: 4–7 au- avoide, -oyde, 5 awoyde, 5–6 aduoyde, -voyde, 6 advoid, awode, 6–7 auoyd, auoid, 6– avoid.
[a. AF. avoide-r = OF. esvuidier, évuider (see a- prefix 9), to empty out, clear out, quit, get quit of, banish, f. es out + vuidier, f. vuit, vuide, empty: see void v. and a. Cf. the sense development of evacuate v. For the spelling adv- see ad- prefix 2.]
In several senses formerly occasionally strengthened by out, away; cf. to clear out, away.
I. To empty a thing (of what is in it); to make, become, or be empty.
† 1. trans. To make (a vessel, place, person) void or empty; to empty, clear, free, rid (of). Obs.
| 1382 Wyclif Ecclus. xiii. 6 He shal lyue with thee, and auoide thee out [Vulg. evacuabit te; 1611 make thee bare]. c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems 16 Hertis avoydyng of alle ther hevyness. c 1500 Yng. Childr. Bk. in Babees Bk. 23 Sone A-voyd þou thi trenchere. 1531 Elyot Gov. ii. vii. (1557) 105 Commanded the chambre to be avoided. 1601 Tate Househ. Ord. Ed. II, §94 (1876) 56 To avoid the court of al manner of such people. |
2. To make void or of no effect; to refute, disprove. In Law, to defeat (a pleading); to invalidate, ‘quash’ (a sentence, agreement, document, etc.)
| c 1375 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. 1871 II. 167 How wickide men sclaundriden [Crist] and he avoydide þer blame. 1514–5 Act 6 Hen. VIII, iv, All outlawries had contrary to this Acte be advoyded. 1581 Fulke in Confer. ii. (1584) I iij b, This answere is a senseles cauil, which is easily auoyded. 1628 Coke On Litt. 43 a, The Statute intended not to auoid the feoffment. 1768 Blackstone Comm. II. 308 How a deed may be avoided, or rendered of no effect. 1858 Ld. St. Leonards Handy-bk. Prop. Law viii. 59 If the advowson is purchased with a corrupt view, that may avoid the purchase. |
† 3. intr. (for refl.) Of benefices: To become void, to fall vacant. Obs., but cf. avoidance.
| 1521 Mem. Ripon (1882) I. 183 To have their turne when it fortun to advoide agayn. 1726 Ayliffe Parerg. 112 If a Person takes a Bishoprick, it does not avoid by Force of that Law of Pluralities, but by the antient Common Law. |
II. To empty things out of a place, etc., to remove, to quit.
† 4. To empty out, clear out, put away, remove (the contents of anything). Obs.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vii. xliv. (1495) 257 The matere shall be auoyded and pourgyd wyth couenable medicyne. 1563 T. Hill Arte Garden. (1593) 136 Little furrowes..to auoyd the moisture and raine. 1641 Prynne Antip. i. i. 28 His Images and Pictures..should be pluckt down and avoided out of all Churches. |
† b. To eject by excretion; to void. (Said loosely also of snakes sloughing their skin.) Obs.
| 1562 Cooper Answ. Priv. Masse (1850) 208 The sanctified bread..passeth into the belly, and is avoided out of the body. 1598 Hakluyt Voy. I. 97 It causeth vrine to be avoided in great measure. 1604 James I Counterbl. (Arb.) 104 Forced to auoyde muche winde out of your stomacke. 1691 Ray Creation (1714) 28 So they avoid their skins unbroken. Ibid. (1701) 145 They avoid them [pebbles] by siege. |
† c. To get rid of, clear away, do away with, put an end to (things immaterial). Obs.
| 1382 Wyclif 2 Cor. iii. 7 The whiche glorie is auoydid [Vulg. evacuatur]. c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) i. 90 Ffor to a-voide a-wey all interrupcion. 1561 Hollybush Hom. Apoth. 14 a, The same doth avoyde horsenesse. 1685 Baxter Paraphr. N.T. Acts xv. 17 There was then no Judge of such controversies..to avoid and end them. |
† 5. To get rid of, expel, banish, dismiss, send or drive away (a person from, out of a place). Obs.
| 1460 J. Capgrave Chron. 178 That this Petir [Gaveston] schuld be a voyded. 1494 Fabyan vii. ccxxxviii. 276 He auoyded y⊇ munkys out of the house of Aumbrisbury. 1529 Rastell Chron. (1811) 106 He myght not clerely avoyed them the lande. 1540 R. Hyrde Vives' Instr. Chr. Wom. (1592) B iij a, Avoide all mankinde away from her. 1643 Prynne Power Parl. ii. 19 They would avoyd all aliens and strangers out of it [the City]. |
b. refl. in sense of next. arch. or Obs.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 3622 Avoyde scho hir, and vmbethoght. a 1400 Cov. Myst. 131 Avoyd ȝow hens out of this place. 1808 Scott Marm. vi. xxxii, Avoid thee, Fiend! |
† 6. intr. To move or go away, withdraw, depart, quit; to give place, retire, retreat. Obs.
| a 1400 Cov. Myst. 131 Avoyd, seres, and lete my lorde the buschop come. a 1529 Skelton Vox Pop. vii. 45 Or els, for non payeing the rent, Avoyde at our Ladye daye in Lent. 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. i. 35 Thinking to auoid by the swiftnes of his horse. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 72 The Musicians spent so much time in vnseasonable tuning, that he commanded them to auoid. 1763 Prior Alma iii. 253 And both as they provisions want, Chicane, avoid, retire, and faint. |
† b. Const. from, out of, forth of. to avoid (from a horse): to dismount. Obs.
| 1485 Caxton Paris & V. 26 Eche body avoyded oute of the chambre. 1535 Coverdale Matt. xvi. 23 Auoyde fro me, Sathan. 1570–87 Holinshed Scot. Chron. (1806) I. 351 Quicklie avoiding from his horse. 1611 Bible 1 Sam. xviii. 11 Dauid auoided out of his presence. |
† c. transf. of water, wind, etc. To escape, run out or away. Obs.
| 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 305/3 The see Ocean..auoydeth twyes and gyueth way to the peple. 1523 Fitzherb. Surv. xxxv. (1539) 53 Make a great dyche..that the water may auoyde. 1610 Markham Masterp. ii. cxxi. 424 If you put a hollow quill therein..the winde will auoyd the better. |
† 7. trans. To depart from, leave, quit (a place); to dismount from (a horse). Obs.
| 1447–8 J. Shillingford Lett. (1871) 91 They wolle avoyde theire dwellyng places. 1481 Caxton Reynard (1844) 105 Ye commaunded them to auoyde your Court. 1557 K. Arthur (Copland) vii. xxxiv, The Kynge auoyded his hors. 1660 Trial Reg. 160 Desired that strangers might avoid the room. |
III. To keep away from, keep from, keep off.
8. (the usual current sense—a natural extension of 7): To leave alone, keep clear of or away from, shun; to have nothing to do with, refrain from: a. a person or place.
(The first quotation may belong to 5, hardly to 4.)
| c 1384 Wyclif De Eccl. Sel. Wks. 1871 III. 353 Men shulden avoide þis frere. 1530 Palsgr. 441/1 Never have to do with hym, if thou mayst avoyde hym. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 579 And Sheep, in Shades, avoid the parching Plain. 1722 De Foe Plague 131 Avoiding the towns, they left..Newington on the right hand. 1857 Bohn's Handbk. Prov. 323 Avoid a slanderer as you would a scorpion. Mod. Avoiding Scylla, he fell into Charybdis. |
b. a thing, course of action, etc.
| c 1450 Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866) 28 Mowth and tongge avoydyng alle outrage. 1681 Dryden Abs. & Achit. ii. 483 Still thou mayst live, avoiding pen and ink. 1722 De Foe Moll. Fl. (1840) 148, I ventured to avoid signing a contract. 1767 Fordyce Serm. Yng. Wom. I. i. 36 Take care to avoid every appearance of partiality. |
9. To escape, evade (things coming towards one); to keep out of the way of.
| 1530 Palsgr. 441/1 That was wel avoyded, cela estoyt bien eschappé. 1541 Barnes Wks. (R.) Can you deuise for to auoyde hys vengeaunce? 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, iii. v. 68 T'auoid the Censures of the carping World. 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 92 Wormes creep out of the earth to avoide them [moles]. 1714 Spect. No. 578 ¶11 The King had perished..had he not avoided his Pursuers. 1808 Scott Marm. v. xviii, They deemed it hopeless to avoid The convoy of their dangerous guide. |
† 10. To prevent, to obviate, to keep off. Obs.
| 1608 Plat Gard. Eden (1653) 54 Northerly windes may be avoyded by some defence. 1664 Power Exp. Philos. ii. 129 Which will avoid..multiplicity of terms for the future. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. iii. v, That the Body..be decently interred, to avoid putrescence. |
† 11. Obs. or arch. const. of senses 8–10: with subord. clause. To avoid that; with inf. To avoid to do.
| 1570–87 Holinshed Scot. Chron. (1806) II. 124 To avoid that none..that had offended the laws, should be received into anie of their dominions. 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. i. 23 Because he by that meanes would auoid to marry with Alice. 1600 Holland Livy x. xv. 361 He avoided App. Claudius to be his companion in government. 1853 F. Newman Odes of Horace 185 Horace..in praising the emperor and congratulating Marcellus, avoids to make either seem his main subject. |
▪ II. † aˈvoid, a. Obs.
[f. prec. vb.; on apparent analogy of void vb. and adj. or ? contr. of avoided; cf. devoid.]
Empty, void; free or rid (of). Obs.
| 1488 Plumpton Corr. 66 The clarkship therof standeth avoyd. 1514 Barclay Cyt. & Uplondyshm. 3 The ploweman resteth avoyde of all busynesse. |
▪ III. † aˈvoid, n. Obs.
[f. avoid v.]
1. The withdrawal of dishes (after meals).
| 1494 Ord. R. Househ. 113 All that is dispended for..the greete avoides at feestes. 1577 Harrison England i. ii. v. 124 They do not their mantels from them untill supper be ended, and the avoid doone. |
2. Excretion, evacuation.
| 1502 Arnold Chron. (1811) 150 Nott to ete nor dryncke out of noo vessel but in the same that he made hys avoid in. |