avoid

verb12

1. •
   To try not to meet or communicate with (a person); to shun.
2. •
   To stay out of the way of (something harmful).

   • I avoided the slap easily.
   • One town was flooded from the storm, while the other town avoided the storm.
3. •
   To keep away from; to keep clear of; to stay away from.

   • I try to avoid the company of gamblers.
4. •
   to take care not to do something or not to let something happen

   • Then he realized, by the immobility of the other children and by the way they avoided looking at him, that it was he who was selected for punishment. — 1953
5. •
   To make void, to annul; to refute (especially a contract).
6. •
   To defeat or evade; to invalidate.
7. •
   (no longer used) To leave, evacuate; to leave as empty, to withdraw or come away from.

   • […] the bishop commaunded al to auoide the chambre for an houre, and beganne to talke after this manner to his chaplin […] — 1565
8. •
   (no longer used) To retire; to withdraw, depart, go away.

   • The devyll […] sayde vnto hym: all these will I geve the / iff thou wilt faull doune and woꝛship me. Thẽ sayde Iesus vnto hym. Avoyd Satan. — 1526
9. •
   (no longer used) To emit or throw out; to void.

   • […] the citie of Memi where is a great caue oꝛ denne in the which is a spꝛynge oꝛ fountayne that continually auoydethe a great quantitie of Bitumen […] — 1555
10. •
    (no longer used) To get rid of.
11. •
    (no longer used) To make empty; to clear.
12. •
    (no longer used) To become void or vacant.