Forms: 4–7 au- avoide, -oyde, 5 awoyde, 5–6 aduoyde, -voyde, 6 advoid, awode, 6–7 auoyd, auoid, 6– avoid. [a AF. avoide-r = OF. esvuidier, évuider (see A- pref. 9), to empty out, clear out, quit, get quit of, banish, f. es out + vuidier, f. vuit, vuide, empty: see VOID v. and a. Cf. the sense development of EVACUATE v. For the spelling adv- see AD- pref. 2.] In several senses formerly occasionally strengthened by out, away; cf. to clear out, away.
I. To empty a thing (of what is in it); to make, become, or be empty.
† 1. trans. To make (a vessel, place, person) void or empty; to empty, clear, free, rid (of). Obs.
1382. Wyclif, Ecclus. xiii. 6. He shal lyue with thee, and auoide thee out [Vulg. evacuabit te; 1611 make thee bare].
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems, 16. Hertis avoydyng of alle ther hevyness.
c. 1500. Yng. Childr. Bk., in Babees Bk., 23. Sone A-voyd þou thi trenchere.
1531. Elyot, Gov., II. vii. (1557), 105. Commanded the chambre to be avoided.
1601. Tate, Househ. Ord. Ed. II., § 94 (1876), 56. To avoid the court of al manner of such people.
2. To make void or of no effect; to refute, disprove. In Law, to defeat (a pleading); to invalidate, ‘quash’ (a sentence, agreement, document, etc.)
c. 1375. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. 1871, II. 167. How wickide men sclaundriden [Crist] and he avoydide þer blame.
1514–5. Act 6 Hen. VIII., iv. All outlawries had contrary to this Acte be advoyded.
1581. Fulke, in Confer., II. (1584), I iij b. This answere is a senseles cauil, which is easily auoyded.
1628. Coke, On Litt., 43 a. The Statute intended not to auoid the feoffment.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., II. 308. How a deed may be avoided, or rendered of no effect.
1858. Ld. St. Leonards, Handy-bk. Prop. Law, VIII. 59. If the advowson is purchased with a corrupt view, that may avoid the purchase.
† 3. intr. (for refl.) of benefices: To become void, to fall vacant. Obs., but cf. AVOIDANCE.
1521. Mem. Ripon (1882), I. 183. To have their turne when it fortun to advoide agayn.
1726. Ayliffe, Parerg., 112. If a Person takes a Bishoprick, it does not avoid by Force of that Law of Pluralities, but by the antient Common Law.
II. To empty things out of a place, etc., to remove, to quit.
† 4. To empty out, clear out, put away, remove (the contents of anything). Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VII. xliv. (1495), 257. The matere shall be auoyded and pourgyd wyth couenable medicyne.
1563. Hyll, Arte Garden. (1593), 136. Little furrowes … to auoyd the moisture and raine.
1641. Prynne, Antip., I. i. 28. His Images and Pictures … should be pluckt down and avoided out of all Churches.
† b. To eject by excretion; to void. (Said loosely also of snakes sloughing their skin.) Obs.
1562. Cooper, Answ. Priv. Masse (1850), 208. The sanctified bread … passeth into the belly, and is avoided out of the body.
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 97. It causeth vrine to be avoided in great measure.
1604. James I., Counterbl. (Arb.), 104. Forced to auoyde muche winde out of your stomacke.
1691. Ray, Creation (1714), 28. So they avoid their skins unbroken. Ibid. (1701), 145. They avoid them [pebbles] by siege.
† c. To get rid of, clear away, do away with, put an end to (things immaterial). Obs.
1382. Wyclif, 2 Cor. iii. 7. The whiche glorie is auoydid [Vulg. evacuatur].
c. 1485. Digby Myst. (1882), I. 90. Ffor to a-voide a-wey all interrupcion.
1561. Hollybush, Hom. Apoth., 14 a. The same doth avoyde horsenesse.
1685. Baxter, Paraphr. N. T., Acts xv. 17. There was then no Judge of such controversies … to avoid and end them.
† 5. To get rid of, expel, banish, dismiss, send or drive away (a person from, out of a place). Obs.
1460. Capgrave, Chron., 178. That this Petir [Gaveston] schuld be a voyded.
1494. Fabyan, VII. ccxxxviii. 276. He auoyded ye munkys out of the house of Aumbrisbury.
1529. Rastell, Chron. (1811), 106. He myght not clerely avoyed them the lande.
1540. Hyrde, Vives’ Instr. Chr. Wom. (1592), B iij a. Avoide all mankinde away from her.
1643. Prynne, Power Parl., II. 19. They would avoyd all aliens and strangers out of it [the City].
b. refl. in sense of next. arch. or Obs.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 3622. Avoyde scho hir, and vmbethoght.
a. 1400. Cov. Myst., 131. Avoyd ȝow hens out of this place.
1808. Scott, Marm., VI. xxxii. Avoid thee, Fiend!
† 6. intr. To move or go away, withdraw, depart, quit; to give place, retire, retreat. Obs.
a. 1400. Cov. Myst., 131. Avoyd, seres, and lete my lorde the buschop come.
a. 1529. Skelton, Vox Pop., vii. 45. Or els, for non payeing the rent, Avoyde at our Ladye daye in Lent.
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. I. 35. Thinking to auoid by the swiftnes of his horse.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 72. The Musicians spent so much time in vnseasonable tuning, that he commanded them to auoid.
1763. Prior, Alma, III. 253. And both as they provisions want, Chicane, avoid, retire, and faint.
† b. Const. from, out of, forth of. To avoid (from a horse): to dismount. Obs.
1485. Caxton, Paris & V., 26. Eche body avoyded oute of the chambre.
1535. Coverdale, Matt. xvi. 23. Auoyde fro me, Sathan.
1570–87. Holinshed, Scot. Chron. (1806), I. 351. Quicklie avoiding from his horse.
1611. Bible, 1 Sam. xviii. 11. Dauid auoided out of his presence.
† c. transf. of water, wind, etc. To escape, run out or away. Obs.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 305/3. The see Ocean … auoydeth twyes and gyueth way to the peple.
1523. Fitzherb., Surv., xxxv. (1539), 53. Make a great dyche … that the water may auoyde.
1610. Markham, Masterp., II. cxxi. 424. If you put a hollow quill therein … the winde will auoyd the better.
† 7. trans. To depart from, leave, quit (a place); to dismount from (a horse). Obs.
1447–8. Shillingford, Lett. (1871), 91. They wolle avoyde theire dwellyng places.
1481. Caxton, Reynard (1844), 105. Ye commaunded them to auoyde your Court.
1557. K. Arthur (Copland), VII. xxxiv. The Kynge auoyded his hors.
1660. Trial Reg., 160. Desired that strangers might avoid the room.
III. To keep away from, keep from, keep off.
8. (the usual current sense—a natural extension of 7): To leave alone, keep clear of or away from, shun; to have nothing to do with, refrain from: a. a person or place.
(The first quotation may belong to 5, hardly to 4.)
c. 1384. Wyclif, De Eccl., Sel. Wks. 1871, III. 353. Men shulden avoide þis frere.
1530. Palsgr., 441/1. Never have to do with hym, if thou mayst avoyde hym.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 579. And Sheep, in Shades, avoid the parching Plain.
1722. De Foe, Plague, 131. Avoiding the towns, they left … Newington on the right hand.
1857. Bohn’s Handbk. Prov., 323. Avoid a slanderer as you would a scorpion.
Mod. Avoiding Scylla, he fell into Charybdis.
b. a thing, course of action, etc.
c. 1450. Pol., Rel., & L. Poems (1866), 28. Mowth and tongge avoydyng alle outrage.
1681. Dryden, Abs. & Achit., II. 483. Still thou mayst live, avoiding pen and ink.
1722. De Foe, Moll Fl. (1840), 148. I ventured to avoid signing a contract.
1767. Fordyce, Serm. Yng. Wom., I. i. 36. Take care to avoid every appearance of partiality.
9. To escape, evade (things coming towards one); to keep out of the way of.
1530. Palsgr., 441/1. That was wel avoyded, cela estoyt bien eschappé.
a. 1540. Barnes, Wks. (1573), 187 (R.). Can you deuise for to auoyde hys vengeaunce, which bée so openly contrary to hys woorde?
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., III. v. 68. T’auoid the Censures of the carping World.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 92. Wormes creep out of the earth to avoide them [moles].
1714. Spect., No. 578, ¶ 11. The King had perished … had he not avoided his Pursuers.
1808. Scott, Marm., V. xviii. They deemed it hopeless to avoid The convoy of their dangerous guide.
† 10. To prevent, to obviate, to keep off. Obs.
1608. Plat, Gard. Eden (1653), 54. Northerly windes may be avoyded by some defence.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., II. 129. Which will avoid … multiplicity of terms for the future.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., III. v. That the Body … be decently interred, to avoid putrescence.
† 11. Obs. or arch. const. of senses 8–10: with subord. cl. To avoid that; with inf. To avoid to do.
1570–87. Holinshed, Scot. Chron. (1806), II. 124. To avoid that none … that had offended the laws, should be received into anie of their dominions.
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. I. 23. Because he by that meanes would auoid to marry with Alice.
1600. Holland, Livy, X. xv. 361. He avoided App. Claudius to be his companion in government.
1853. F. Newman, Odes of Horace, 185. Horace … in praising the emperor and congratulating Marcellus, avoids to make either seem his main subject.
