obviate
Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈɒbviˌeɪt/
  • (America) IPA: /ˈɑbviˌeɪt/
Verb

obviate (obviates, present participle obviating; past and past participle obviated)

  1. (transitive) To anticipate and prevent or bypass (something which would otherwise have been necessary or required).
  2. (transitive) To avoid (a future problem or difficult situation).
    • 1826, Richard Reece, A Practical Dissertation on the Means of Obviating & Treating the Varieties of Costiveness, page 181 ↗:
      A mild dose of a warm active aperient to obviate costiveness, or to produce two motions daily, is generally very beneficial.
    • 2004, David J. Anderson, Agile Management for Software Engineering, page 180 ↗:
      Some change requests, rather than extend the scope, obviate some of the existing scope of a project.
    • 2008, William S. Kroger, Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis: In Medicine, Dentistry, and Psychology, page 163 ↗:
      Thus, to obviate resistance, the discussion should be relevant to the patient′s problems.
    • 2019, Gary Younge, Shamima Begum has a right to British citizenship, whether you like it or not, in the Guardian.
      A government that thinks it can take on the world with Brexit can’t take back a bereaved teenaged mother with fundamentalist delusions. Moreover, the risk does not obviate two crucial facts in this case. First and foremost, she is a citizen ... Second, when Begum went to Syria she was a child.
Translations
  • French: rendre superflu, éviter
  • German: überflüssig machen
  • Italian: ovviare
  • Portuguese: obviar
  • Russian: избега́ть
  • Spanish: obviar



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