What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Avoid vs Abandon - What's the difference?

avoid | abandon |

As verbs the difference between avoid and abandon

is that avoid is to keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor not to meet; to shun; to abstain from while abandon is (obsolete) to subdue; to take control of .

As a noun abandon is

a yielding to natural impulses or inhibitions; freedom from artificial constraint, with loss of appreciation of consequences
.

As an adverb abandon is

(obsolete|not comparable) freely; entirely.

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

    abandon

    English

    Etymology 1

    * From (etyl) abandounen, from (etyl) abandoner, formed from . See also (l), (l). * Displaced (etyl) forleten .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To subdue; to take control of.
  • To give up control of, to surrender or to give oneself over, or to yield to one's emotions.
  • * Macaulay
  • He abandoned himself to his favourite vice.
  • To desist in doing, practicing, following, holding, or adhering to; to turn away from; to permit to lapse; to renounce; to discontinue.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-05-17
  • , author=George Monbiot, authorlink=George Monbiot , title=Money just makes the rich suffer , volume=188, issue=23, page=19 , magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/06/politics-envy-keenest-rich , passage=In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured.
  • To leave behind; to desert as in a ship or a position, typically in response to overwhelming odds or impending dangers; to forsake, in spite of a duty or responsibility.
  • * (rfdate) I. Taylor:
  • Hope was overthrown, yet could not be abandoned .
    Many baby girls have been abandoned on the streets of Beijing.
  • (obsolete) To cast out; to banish; to expel; to reject.
  • * 1594 , , The Taming of the Shrew , act I, scene ii:
  • Being all this time abandoned from your bed.
  • * Udall
  • that he might abandon them from him
  • To no longer exercise a right, title, or interest, especially with no interest of reclaiming it again; to yield; to relinquish.
  • To surrender to the insurer the insured item, so as to claim a total loss.
  • Synonyms
    (synonyms of "abandon") * abdicate * blin * cede * desert * forego * forlet * forsake * give up * leave * quit * relinquish * renounce * resign * retire * surrender * withdraw from * withsake * yield
    Derived terms
    (terms derived from "abandon") * aband * abandoned * abandonee * abandoner * abandonware

    Etymology 2

    * From (etyl), from (etyl) abandon, from abondonner.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A yielding to natural impulses or inhibitions; freedom from artificial constraint, with loss of appreciation of consequences. .
  • * 1954 , , Messiah :
  • I envy those chroniclers who assert with reckless but sincere abandon : 'I was there. I saw it happen. It happened thus.'
  • * 2007 , Akiva Goldsman and Mark Protosevich, :
  • They needed to have an abandon in their performance that you just can’t get out of people in the middle of the night when they’re barefoot.
  • (obsolete) abandonment; relinquishment.
  • Synonyms
    * (giving up to impulses) wantonness, unrestraint, libertinism, abandonment, profligacy, unconstraint

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (obsolete, not comparable) Freely; entirely.
  • * 1330 , Arthour and Merlin :
  • His ribbes and scholder fel adoun,/Men might se the liver abandoun .

    References

    ----