A Quick and Simple Dictionary

avoid

1. Verb.  (transitive) To keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor not to meet; to shun; to abstain from; as, to avoid the company of gamesters.
2. Verb.  (transitive, obsolete) To make empty; to clear.
3. Verb.  (transitive, now) To make void, to annul; to refute (especially a contract).
4. Verb.  (transitive, 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.
5. Verb.  (transitive, obsolete) To emit or throw out; to void; as, to avoid excretions.
6. Verb.  (transitive, obsolete) To leave, evacuate; to leave as empty, to withdraw or come away from.
7. Verb.  (transitive) (obsolete) To get rid of.
8. Verb.  (intransitive, obsolete) To retire; to withdraw, depart, go away.
9. Verb.  (intransitive) (obsolete) To become void or vacant.