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Avoid vs Not - What's the difference?

avoid | not |

As a verb avoid

is to keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor not to meet; to shun; to abstain from.

As an adverb not is

negates the meaning of the modified verb.

As a conjunction not is

and not.

As an interjection not is

used to indicate that the previous phrase was meant sarcastically or ironically.

As a noun not is

unary logical function NOT, true if input is false, or a gate implementing that negation function.

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

    not

    English

    (wikipedia not)

    Adverb

    (-)
  • Negates the meaning of the modified verb.
  • * 1973 , .
  • Well, I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got.
    Did you take out the trash? No, I did not .
    Not knowing any better, I went ahead.
  • To no degree
  • That is not red; it's orange.

    Usage notes

    In modern usage, the form do not ...'' (or ''don’t ...'') is preferred to ''... not'' for all but a short list of verbs (is/am/are/was/were, have/has/had, can/could, shall/should, will/would, may/might, need): * They do not''' sow.'' (modern) vs. ''They sow '''not . (KJB) American usage tends to prefer don’t have'' or ''haven’t got'' to ''have not'' or ''haven’t'', except when ''have'' is used as an auxiliary (or in the idiom ''have-not ): * I don’t have a clue'' or ''I haven’t got a clue. (US) * I haven’t a clue'' or ''I haven't got a clue. (outside US) * I haven’t been to Spain. (universal) The verb need is only directly negated when used as an auxiliary, and even this usage is rare in the US. * You don’t need to trouble yourself. (US) * You needn’t trouble yourself. (outside US) * I don’t need any eggs today. (universal) The verb dare can sometimes be directly negated. * I daren't do that.

    Conjunction

    (English Conjunctions)
  • And .
  • I wanted a plate of shrimp, not a bucket of chicken.
    He painted the car blue and black, not solid purple.

    Usage notes

    * The construction “A, not B” is synonymous with the constructions “A, and not B”; “not B, but A”; and “not B, but rather A”.

    Interjection

    not!
  • Used to indicate that the previous phrase was meant sarcastically or ironically.
  • I really like hanging out with my little brother watching ''Barney''... not !
    Sure, you're perfect the way you are... not !

    Synonyms

    * I don't think

    See also

    *

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Unary logical function NOT, true if input is false, or a gate implementing that negation function.
  • You need a not there to conform with the negative logic of the memory chip.

    See also

    * AND * OR * NAND * XOR

    See also

    * if * then * else * and * or * true * false

    Statistics

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