Defn: That which calls aside; a dissuasive.
AVOCET; AVOSET Av"o*cet, Av"o*set, n. Etym: [F. avocette: cf. It. avosetta, Sp. avoceta.] (Zoöl.)
Defn: A grallatorial bird, of the genus Recurvirostra; the scooper. The bill is long and bend upward toward the tip. The American species is R. Americana. [Written also avocette.]
AVOID
A*void" (, v. t. [p. & p. p. Avoided; p. pr. & vb. n. Avoiding.]
Etym: [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.