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Avoid vs Sidestep - What's the difference?

avoid | sidestep |

As verbs the difference between avoid and sidestep

is that avoid is to keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor not to meet; to shun; to abstain from while sidestep is to step to the side.

As a noun sidestep is

a step to the side.

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

    External links

    *

    sidestep

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A step to the side.
  • A motion, physical or metaphorical, to avoid or dodge something.

    • Verb

    (sidestepp)
  • To step to the side.
  • *1955 , edition, ISBN 0553249592, page 180:
  • *:I He sidestepped , and I went in.
  • To avoid or dodge.
  • :They sidestepped the issue.
  • *{{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=October 1 , author=Clive Lindsay , title=Kilmarnock 1 - 2 St Johnstone , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Kilmarnock ought to have taken the lead on the stroke of half-time when Hefferman set up Kroca and, although the defender neatly sidestepped his marker, he fired straight into the chest of Enckelman.}}