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Averse vs Avoid - What's the difference?

averse | avoid |

As verbs the difference between averse and avoid

is that averse is to turn away while avoid is to keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor not to meet; to shun; to abstain from.

As an adjective averse

is having a repugnance or opposition of mind.

averse

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Having a repugnance or opposition of mind.
  • * {{quote-book, year=2004
    • , author=Arthur Schopenhauer , title=Essays of Schopenhauer , chapter=2 citation , passage=This is why the most eminent intellects have always been strongly averse to any kind of disturbance, interruption and distraction, and above everything to that violent interruption which is caused by noise; other people do not take any particular notice of this sort of thing.}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1885
    • , author=E. T. A. Hoffmann , title=The Entail citation , passage=“I assure you, cousin,” replied the old gentleman, “that the Baron, notwithstanding his unpleasant manner, is really one of the most excellent and kind-hearted men in the world. As I have already told you, he did not assume these manners until the time he became lord of the entail; previous to then he was a modest, gentle youth. Besides, he is not, after all, so bad as you make him out to be; and further, I should like to know why you are so averse to him.” As my uncle said these words he smiled mockingly, and the blood rushed hotly and furiously into my face.}}
  • Turned away or backward.
  • * Dryden
    • The tracks averse a lying notice gave, / And led the searcher backward from the cave.
  • (obsolete) Lying on the opposite side (to'' or ''from ).

    • Usage notes

    The terms (adverse) and averse'' are sometimes confused, though their meanings are somewhat different. ''Adverse'' most often refers to things, denoting something that is in opposition to someone's interests — something one might refer to as an (adversity) or (adversary) — (''adverse winds''; ''an attitude adverse to our ideals''). ''Averse'' usually refers to people, and implies one has a distaste, disinclination, or (aversion) toward something (''a leader averse to war''; ''an investor averse to risk taking''). ''Averse'' is most often used with "''to''" in a construction like "''I am averse to…''". ''Adverse shows up less often in this type of construction, describing a person instead of a thing, and should carry a meaning of "actively opposed to" rather than "has an aversion to".

    Synonyms

    * (having a repugnance) disliking, disinclined, fromward, unwilling, reluctant, loath

    Derived terms

    * aversely * averseness * risk-averse

    Verb

    (avers)
  • To turn away.

    • Related terms

    * avert * aversion

    See also

    * adverse

    Anagrams

    * * * ----

    avoid

    English

    Verb

  • To keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor not to meet; to shun; to abstain from.
  • :I try to avoid the company of gamblers.
  • *1526 , Bible , tr. William Tyndale, Matthew 4:
  • *:The devyllsayde unto hym: all these will I geve the, iff thou wilt faull doune and worship me. Then sayde Jesus unto hym. Avoyde Satan.
  • *Milton
  • *:What need a man forestall his date of grief, / And run to meet what he would most avoid ?
  • *Macaulay
  • *:He carefully avoided every act which could goad them into open hostility.
  • *{{quote-news, year=2012, date=June 19, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC Sport
    • , title= England 1-0 Ukraine , passage=England could have met world and European champions Spain but that eventuality was avoided by Sweden's 2-0 win against France, and Rooney's first goal in a major tournament since scoring twice in the 4-2 victory over Croatia in Lisbon at Euro 2004.}}
  • (obsolete) To make empty; to clear.
  • :(Wyclif)
  • To make void, to annul; to refute (especially a contract).
  • *Spenser
  • *:How can these grants of the king's be avoided ?
  • (legal) To defeat or evade; to invalidate. Thus, in a replication, the plaintiff may deny the defendant's plea, or confess it, and avoid it by stating new matter.
  • :(Blackstone)
  • (obsolete) To emit or throw out; to void; as, to avoid excretions.
  • :(Sir Thomas Browne)
  • (obsolete) To leave, evacuate; to leave as empty, to withdraw or come away from.
  • *:
  • *:Anone they encountred to gyders / and he with the reed shelde smote hym soo hard that he bare hym ouer to the erthe / There with anone came another Knyght of the castel / and he was smyten so sore that he auoyded his fadel
  • *Francis Bacon
  • *:Six of us only stayed, and the rest avoided the room.
  • (obsolete) To get rid of.
  • :(Shakespeare)
  • (obsolete) To retire; to withdraw, depart, go away.
  • (obsolete) To become void or vacant.

    • Usage notes

    * This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing) . See

    Derived terms

    * avoid like the plague

    External links

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