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Overlook vs Avoid - What's the difference?

overlook | avoid |

As verbs the difference between overlook and avoid

is that overlook is to look down upon from a place that is over or above; to look over or view from a higher position; to rise above, so as to command a view of while avoid is to keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor not to meet; to shun; to abstain from.

As a noun overlook

is a vista or point that gives a beautiful view.

overlook

English

(Webster 1913)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A vista or point that gives a beautiful view.
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To look down upon from a place that is over or above; to look over or view from a higher position; to rise above, so as to command a view of
  • to overlook a valley from a hill
  • Hence: To supervise; to watch over; sometimes, to observe secretly
  • to overlook a gang of laborers; to overlook one who is writing a letter
  • To inspect; to examine; to look over carefully or repeatedly.
  • To look upon with an evil eye; to bewitch by looking upon; to fascinate.
  • To fail to notice; to look over and beyond (anything) without seeing it; to miss or omit in looking.
  • To pretend not to have noticed, especially a mistake; to pass over without censure or punishment.
  • Anagrams

    *

    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