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.

Verb

(outskipp)

To avoid by flight or fleeing; escape.

*1816 , Ben Jonson, William Gifford, The works of Ben Jonson :

Thou lost thyself, child Drusus, when thou thoughtst Thou couldst outskip my vengeance; or outstand The power I had to crush thee into air.

*1866 , Gerald Massey, Shakspeare's sonnets never before interpreted :

The right novice of pregnant and aspiring conceit will not outskip any precious gem of invention, or any beautiful flower of elocution that may richly adorn or gallantly bedeck the trim garland of his budding style.

*1999 , Henry James, Complete stories :

He pretends to be surprised at nothing, and to possess in perfection—poor, pitiable old fop—the art nil admirari ; but repeatedly, I know, I have clear outskipped his fancy.

To surpass in skipping; surpass in skipping stones.

*2008 , Brenda Cooper, The Silver Ship and the Sea :

We had stopped throwing stones in view of anyone except ourselves years ago, after we saw the looks on the adults' faces when we outskipped them.