[a. L. ēvītātiōn-em, n. of action f. ēvītāre: see EVITE v.] The action of avoiding or shunning; avoidance, shirking.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 293. In all Bodies, there is an Appetite of Union, and Evitation of Solution of Continuity.
1655–60. Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), 479/2. Election of things convenient, and Evitation of their Contraries.
1790. Paley, Horæ Paul., i. 7. In the first of these [apocryphal epistles] I found, as I expected, a total evitation of circumstances.
1885. R. W. Dixon, Hist. Ch. Eng., xvii. III. 172. The Englishman Pole … true to his destiny of evitation, had declined the toils and honours of the Papacy.
