FromMiddle Englishavoidaunce, fromavoid +-ance.
avoidance (usuallyuncountable,pluralavoidances)
- The act ofavoiding orshunning; keeping clear of.
1907 August,Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, inThe Younger Set, New York, N.Y.:D. Appleton & Company,→OCLC:At her invitation he outlined for her the succeeding chapters with terse military accuracy ; and what she liked best and best understood wasavoidance of that false modesty which condescends, turning technicality into pabulum.
- (law, obsolete) The act ofannulling;annulment.
- (obsolete) The act of becomingvacant, or the state of being vacant, specifically used for the state of abenefice becoming void by the death, deprivation, or resignation of the incumbent.
- (obsolete) The act ofdismissing a person.
- (obsolete) The act ofquitting a position orbenefice.
- (obsolete) Thecourse by which anything (especiallywater) iscarried off.
a.1626, Francis Bacon, “XLV. Of Building”, inThe essays, or councils, civil and moral […] with a table of the colours of good and evil, and a discourse of The wisdom of the ancients, published1696, page122:In theUpper Gallery too I wish that there may be, if the Place will yield it, someFountains running in divers Places from the Wall, with some fineAvoidances.
The act of avoiding or shunning
A dismissing or a quitting; removal; withdrawal.
