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.

Verb

(shunn)

To avoid, especially persistently.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist), author=Lexington

, title= Keeping the mighty honest , passage=British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far.}}

To escape (a threatening evil, an unwelcome task etc).

To screen, hide.

To shove, push.