Synonyms:
debar, forefend, forfend, obviate, deflect, avert, head_off, stave_off, fend_off, avoid, ward_off
Meaning: prevent the occurrence of; prevent from happening; "Let's avoid a confrontation"; "head off a confrontation"; "avert a strike"
Synonyms:
avert, turn_away
Meaning: turn away or aside; "They averted their eyes when the King entered"
Usage examples
We must avert such a catastrophe.
I warn you of the trouble that a little prudence may avert.
He had not been able to avert defeat, but he had prevented utter ruin.
I would do everything in my power to avert war and the suffering it entails.
At length he recovered his presence of mind sufficiently to make an effort to avert his impending doom.
Not that I intend to stop looking for the bombs or the jump-space generator either. We are going to try anything that will avert this planetary murder."
Not long before escaping, she had been threatened with the auction-block; this fate she felt bound to avert, if possible, and the way she aimed to do it was by escaping on the Underground Rail Road.
The attitude of a participant in the course of affairs is thus a double one: there is solicitude, anxiety concerning future consequences, and a tendency to act to assure better, and avert worse, consequences.
Pliny has expressed belief in the efficacy of the fasting spittle for curing disease, and referred to the custom of spitting to avert witchcraft. In England, Scotland, and Ireland spitting customs are not yet obsolete.
Caution, circumspection, prudence, desire to foresee future events so as to avert what is harmful, these desirable traits are as much a product of calling the impulse of fear into play as is cowardice and abject submission.