Search the Dictionary

Calmly, without agitation or violent emotion; patiently; as, to submit quietly to unavoidable evils.

To resort; to have recourse; to go for help. If, to avoid succession in eternal existence, they recur to the "punctum stans" of the schools, they will thereby very little help us to a more positive idea of infinite duration. Locke. Recurring decimal (Math.), a circulating decimal. See under Decimal. -- Recurring serie…

The withdrawing of a ship or fleet from an enemy for the purpose of avoiding an engagement or escaping after defeat.

putting in a stock of merit. Swift. To save appearance, to preserve a decent outside; to avoid exposure of a discreditable state of things.

Avoiding unnecessary expense or waste; frugal; not lavish or wasteful; economical; as, a saving cook.

luptuousness; lewdness. Those pampered animals That rage in savage sensuality. Shak. They avoid dress, lest they should have affections tainted by any sensuality. Addison.

To avoid; to escape; to neglect; -- implying unfaithfulness or fraud; as, to shirk duty. The usual makeshift by which they try to shirk difficulties. Hare.

To avoid; to keep clear of; to get out of the way of; to escape from; to eschew; as, to shun rocks, shoals, vice. I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Acts xx. 26,27. Scarcity and want shall shun you. Shak.

Not to be shunned; inevitable; unavoidable. [R.] "Shunless destiny." Shak.

The quality or state of being sibilant; sibilation. Milton would not have avoided them for their sibilancy, he who wrote . . . verses that hiss like Medusa's head in wrath. Lowell.

Skeleton key, a key with nearly the whole substance of the web filed away, to adapt it to avoid the wards of a lock; a master key; -- used for opening locks to which it has not been especially fitted. -- Skeleton leaf, a leaf from which the pulpy part has been removed by chemical means, the fibrous part alone remainin…

- Slip link (Mach.), a connecting link so arranged as to allow some play of the parts, to avoid concussion. -- Slip rope (Naut.), a rope by which a cable is secured preparatory to slipping. Totten. -- Slip stopper (Naut.), an arrangement for letting go the anchor suddenly.

An aromatic preparation of carbonate of ammonia and, often, some scent, to avoid or relieve faintness, headache, or the like.

Disposed to solicit; eager to obtain something desirable, or to avoid anything evil; concerned; anxious; careful. "Solicitous of my reputation." Dryden. "He was solicitous for his advice." Calerendon. Enjoy the present, whatsoever it be, and be not solicitous about the future. Jer. Taylor. The colonel had been intent u…

slip in, along, or away, unperceived; to go or come furtively. Chaucer. Fixed of mind to avoid further entreaty, and to fly all company, one night she stole away. Sir P. Sidney. From whom you now must steal, and take no leave. Shak. A soft and solemn breathing sound Rose like a steam of rich, distilled perfumes, And s…

n distinction from engraving in lines. The interlaying of small pieces can not altogether avoid a broken, stippled, spotty effect. Milman.

d be free from passion, unmoved by joy or grief, and should submit without complaint to unavoidable necessity, by which all things are governed.

r accompanied with wind or not. We hear this fearful tempest sing, Yet seek no shelter to avoid the storm. Shak.

To allege or prove to be of unsound mind, so that the performance of some act may be avoided.

fy opinions or conduct; a shift; an evasion. Affect not little shifts and subterfuges, to avoid the force of an argument. I. Watts. By a miserable subterfuge, they hope to render this position safe by rendering it nugatory. Burke.