avoidance
(əˈvɔɪdəns)
Forms: 4–6 au- avoydaunce, 5 avoydans, 6 advoidance, 6–8 au- avoydance, auoidance, 6– avoidance.
[f. avoid v. + -ance; prob. (from the date) in AFr.]
† 1. a. The action of emptying a vessel, etc., or of emptying away its contents; hence, a clearing away, removal; ejection, excretion. Obs.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vii. lxix. (1495) 290 Leest there be to grete auoydaunce. c 1430 Freemasonry 712 From spyttynge and snyftynge kepe the also, By privy avoydans let hyt go. 1548 Geste Pr. Masse 85 For..advoidance of ymage worshyp. 1577 Test. 12 Patriarchs 108 [God] hath assigned..the belly to the avoidance of the stomach. 1627 Speed Eng. Abridged x. §3 Wolues, for whose auoydance Edgar the peaceable did impose a yearely Tribute. 1661 Morgan Sph. Gentry iv. iii. 36 Until..Supper and Avoydance be done and accomplished. |
† b. A means of emptying; an outlet. Obs.
| 1602 Carew Cornwall 122 a, A great standing water..fed by no perceyved spring, neither having any avoydance. 1625 Bacon Build., Ess. (Arb.) 553 Fountaines, Running..from the Wall, with some fine Auoidances. |
2. The action of making void or of no effect; voidance, invalidation, annulment. (Esp. in Law.)
| 1628 Coke On Litt. 261 b, If a man in auoydance of a fine..alleage that hee was out of this Realme in Spaine, at the time of leuying of the fine. a 1832 Mackintosh Hist. Rev. Wks. 1846 II. 119 Some members were threatened with the avoidance of their elections. 1855 Milman Lat. Chr. (1864) V. ix. iv. 246 The obsequious clergy..pronounced at once the avoidance of the marriage. |
† 3. The action of vacating an office or benefice.
| 1642 Sir E. Dering Sp. on Relig. 90 After the death, or other avoidance of a Bishop. |
4. The becoming void or vacant, vacancy (of an office or benefice); also ellipt. the right to fill up the vacancy.
| 1462 Paston Lett. 440 II. 90 That I may have the presentacion of the next avoydaunce for a newew of myn. 1594 Plat Jewell-ho. iii. 64 A learned Vintner and worthie to haue the next auoydance of Bacchus his chaire. 1660 R. Coke Power & Subj. 268 That Patron who should simonically promote any Clerk should not only forfeit that avoidance, but the advowson. 1858 Beveridge Hist. India II. v. iv. 347 The avoidance of the office of said governor-general by death. 1879 Maclear Celts xi. 170 On each avoidance of the abbacy, to fill up the situation from founder's kin. |
† 5. The action of dismissing a person or bidding him quit; dismissal, removal. Obs.
| a 1631 J. Done Aristeas (1633) 111 The King having made avoydance of those hee esteemed not necessary. 1650 Fuller Pisgah ii. xi. 232 By the avoidance of this servant divine providence made a way for Elisha. |
† 6. The action of quitting; withdrawal, departure, exit. Obs.
| a 1555 Latimer Serm. & Rem. (1845) 293 The bishop..commanded avoidance. 1613 Hayward Norm. Kings 86 By voluntary avoidance out of the Realme. 1635 Swan Spec. M. (1670) 418 They make present avoidance from their holes. |
7. a. The action of avoiding or shunning anything unwelcome, or of holding aloof from a person.
| 1610 Donne Pseudo-mart. 343 For avoydance of scandall is Divine law. 1615 Bp. Hall Contempl. xix. v. (1796) II. 261 Some things may be yeelded for the..avoidance of others misconstruction. 1684 Baxter Cath. Commun. 30 Must we let Men Excommunicate one another, and call all to mutual avoidance? 1876 Green Short Hist. iii. §2 (1882) 120 There was no public avoidance of the excommunicated King. |
b. Anthropology. The custom prevalent among many primitive tribes by which one member of a family is forbidden to meet and address another member.
| [1865 Tylor Early Hist. Man. x. 287 Their object seems to be in general the avoidance of intercourse or connexion between parents-in-law and children-in-law... But the reasons for this avoidance are not clear.] 1889 ― in Jrnl. Anthrop. Inst. XVIII. 247 If the customs of residence and the customs of avoidance were independent, or nearly so, we should expect to find their coincidence following the..law of chance. a 1899 J. J. Atkinson Primal Law (1903) 269 Avoidance would arise at the same time between mother-in-law and son-in-law. 1903 Lancet 22 Aug. 532/2 The conditions in which he lived with the female members of his own family gave origin to the curious etiquette of ‘avoidances’ which is still to be found amongst some savage races. 1958 A. R. Radcliffe-Brown Method Soc. Anthrop. i. v. 122 In many primitive societies the relation established between two groups of kin by a marriage between a man of one group and a woman of the other is one which is expressed by customs of avoidance. |