avert
Etymology
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Etymology
From Middle English averten, adverten, from Old French avertir, from Latin āvertere, present active infinitive of āvertō, from ab + vertō ("to turn").
Pronunciation Verbavert (averts, present participle averting; simple past and past participle averted)
- (transitive) To turn aside or away.
- I averted my eyes while my friend typed in her password.
- 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Unity in Religion”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC ↗:
- When atheists and profane persons do hear of so many discordant and contrary opinions in religion, it doth avert them from the church.
- (transitive) To ward off, or prevent, the occurrence or effects of.
- Synonyms: forestall
- How can the danger be averted?
- 1700, Matthew Prior, Carmen Seculare. for the Year 1700:
- Till ardent prayer averts the public woe.
- (intransitive, archaic) To turn away.
- a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Spring”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC ↗:
- Cold and averting from our neighbour's good.
- See Thesaurus:hinder
- French: détourner
- German: abwenden
- Italian: distogliere
- Russian: отводи́ть
- Spanish: apartar
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002
