\A*void"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Avoided}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Avoiding}.] [OF. esvuidier, es (L. ex) + vuidier, voidier,
to empty. See {Void}, a.]
1. To empty. [Obs.] --Wyclif.
2. To emit or throw out; to void; as, to avoid excretions.
   [Obs.] --Sir T. Browne.
3. To quit or evacuate; to withdraw from. [Obs.]
         Six of us only stayed, and the rest avoided the
         room.                                 --Bacon.
4. To make void; to annul or vacate; to refute.
         How can these grants of the king's be avoided?
                                               --Spenser.
5. To keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor no to
   meet; to shun; to abstain from; as, to avoid the company
   of gamesters.
         What need a man forestall his date of grief. And run
         to meet what he would most avoid ?    --Milton.
         He carefully avoided every act which could goad them
         into open hostility.                  --Macaulay.
6. To get rid of. [Obs.] --Shak.
7. (Pleading) 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.
Syn: To escape; elude; evade; eschew.
Usage: To {Avoid}, {Shun}. Avoid in its commonest sense
       means, to keep clear of, an extension of the meaning,
       to withdraw one's self from. It denotes care taken not
       to come near or in contact; as, to avoid certain
       persons or places. Shun is a stronger term, implying
       more prominently the idea of intention. The words may,
       however, in many cases be interchanged.
             No man can pray from his heart to be kept from
             temptation, if the take no care of himself to
             avoid it.                         --Mason.
             So Chanticleer, who never saw a fox, Yet shunned
             him as a sailor shuns the rocks.  --Dryden.

\A*void"\, v. i.
1. To retire; to withdraw. [Obs.]
         David avoided out of his presence.    --1 Sam.
                                               xviii. 11.
2. (Law) To become void or vacant. [Obs.] --Ayliffe.