Avoid vs Attack - What's the difference?
avoid | attack |
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= (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.
An attempt to cause damage or injury to, or to somehow detract from the worth or credibility of, a person, position, idea, object, or thing, by physical, verbal, emotional, or other assault.
* {{quote-book, year=1913, author=
, title=Lord Stranleigh Abroad
, chapter=4 * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=
, volume=189, issue=6, page=1, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= A time in which one attacks. The offence of a battle.
(cricket) Collectively, the bowlers of a cricket side.
(volleyball) Any contact with the ball other than a serve or block which sends the ball across the plane of the net.
(lacrosse) The three attackmen on the field or all the attackmen of a team.
The sudden onset of a disease.
An active episode of a chronic or recurrent disease.
(music) The onset of a musical note, particularly with respect to the strength (and duration) of that onset.
(audio) The amount of time it takes for the volume of an audio signal to go from zero to maximum level (e.g. an audio waveform representing a snare drum hit would feature a very fast attack, whereas that of a wave washing to shore would feature a slow attack).
To apply violent force to someone or something.
To aggressively challenge a person, idea, etc., with words (particularly in newspaper headlines, because it typesets into less space than "criticize" or similar ).
* {{quote-news, year=2012
, date=June 3
, author=Nathan Rabin
, title=TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Mr. Plow” (season 4, episode 9; originally aired 11/19/1992)
To begin to affect; to act upon injuriously or destructively; to begin to decompose or waste.
* Macaulay
* B. Stewart
To deal with something in a direct way; to set to work upon.
(cricket) To aim balls at the batsman’s wicket.
(cricket) To set a field, or bowl in a manner designed to get wickets.
(cricket) To bat aggressively, so as to score runs quickly.
(soccer) To move forward in an attempt to actively score point, as opposed to trying not to concede.
* {{quote-news, year=2011
, date=October 15
, author=Michael Da Silva
, title=Wigan 1 - 3 Bolton
, work=BBC Sport
As verbs the difference between avoid and attack
is that avoid is to keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor not to meet; to shun; to abstain from while attack is to apply violent force to someone or something.As a noun attack is
an attempt to cause damage or injury to, or to somehow detract from the worth or credibility of, a person, position, idea, object, or thing, by physical, verbal, emotional, or other assault.avoid
English
Verb
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.}}
Usage notes
* This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing) . SeeDerived terms
* avoid like the plagueExternal links
*attack
English
Noun
(en noun)citation, passage=“I came down like a wolf on the fold, didn’t I??? Why didn’t I telephone??? Strategy, my dear boy, strategy. This is a surprise attack , and I’d no wish that the garrison, forewarned, should escape. …”}}
Mark Tran
Denied an education by war, passage=One particularly damaging, but often ignored, effect of conflict on education is the proliferation of attacks' on schools
Synonyms
* (volleyball) hit, spike * See alsoAntonyms
* (music) decay, releaseDerived terms
* attack is the best form of defence * pincer attackVerb
(en verb)- This species of snake will only attack humans if it feels threatened.
- She published an article attacking the recent pay cuts.
citation, page= , passage=In its God-like prime, The Simpsons attacked well-worn satirical fodder from unexpected angles, finding fresh laughs in the hoariest of subjects.}}
- On the fourth of March he was attacked by fever.
- Hydrofluoric acid attacks the glass.
- We´ll have dinner before we attack the biology homework.
- I attacked the meal with a hearty appetite.
citation, page= , passage=Six successive defeats had left them rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table but, clearly under instructions to attack from the outset, Bolton started far the brighter.}}