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Avert vs Cancel - What's the difference?

avert | cancel |

In lang=en terms the difference between avert and cancel

is that avert is to ward off, or prevent, the occurrence or effects of while cancel is to offset or equalize something.

As verbs the difference between avert and cancel

is that avert is to turn aside or away while cancel is to cross out something with lines etc.

As a noun cancel is

a cancellation (us ); (nonstandard in some kinds of english).

avert

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To turn aside or away.
  • To avert the eyes from an object.
  • To ward off, or prevent, the occurrence or effects of.
  • How can the danger be averted ?
  • * Milton
  • To avert his ire.
  • * Prior
  • Till ardent prayer averts the public woe.
  • (archaic) To turn away.
  • * Thomson
  • Cold and averting from our neighbour's good.
  • (archaic) To turn away.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • When atheists and profane persons do hear of so many discordant and contrary opinions in religion, it doth avert them from the church.

    Derived terms

    * averter * avertress

    Synonyms

    * (to prevent) * See also

    References

    * " avert" at OneLook® Dictionary Search .

    Anagrams

    * ----

    cancel

    English

    Alternative forms

    * cancell (obsolete)

    Verb

  • To cross out something with lines etc.
  • * Blackstone
  • A deed may be avoided by delivering it up to be cancelled ; that is, to have lines drawn over it in the form of latticework or cancelli; the phrase is now used figuratively for any manner of obliterating or defacing it.
  • To invalidate or annul something.
  • He cancelled his order on their website.
  • * 1914 , (Marjorie Benton Cooke), Bambi
  • *:"I don't know what your agreement was, Herr Professor, but if it had money in it, cancel it. I want him to learn that lesson, too."
  • To mark something (such as a used postage stamp) so that it can't be reused.
  • This machine cancels the letters that have a valid zip code.
  • To offset or equalize something.
  • The corrective feedback mechanism cancels out the noise.
  • (mathematics) To remove a common factor from both the numerator and denominator of a fraction, or from both sides of an equation.
  • (media) To stop production of a programme.
  • (printing, dated) To suppress or omit; to strike out, as matter in type.
  • (obsolete) To shut out, as with a railing or with latticework; to exclude.
  • * Milton
  • cancelled from heaven
  • (slang) To kill.
  • Synonyms

    *

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A cancellation (US ); (nonstandard in some kinds of English).
  • # (Internet) A control message posted to Usenet that serves to cancel a previously posted message.
  • (obsolete) An inclosure; a boundary; a limit.
  • A prison is but a retirement, and opportunity of serious thoughts, to a person whose spiritdesires no enlargement beyond the cancels of the body. — Jeremy Taylor.
  • (printing) The suppression on striking out of matter in type, or of a printed page or pages.