verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
avert/avoid a tragedy (= prevent it from happening )
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The owners could have done something to avert the tragedy.
avoid a misunderstanding
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State clearly what you expect, to avoid misunderstandings later on.
avoid a risk
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They are anxious to avoid any risk of criticism.
avoid an argument
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I was anxious to avoid an argument.
avoid cliché/clichés
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Try and avoid clichés.
avoid conflict
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The Prime Minister wants to avoid a conflict over the issue.
avoid contact
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She doesn’t give interviews and avoids contact with the media.
avoid controversy
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So far, the scheme has avoided controversy.
avoid disappointment
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We recommend you book early to avoid disappointment.
avoid embarrassment
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This solution could help both countries avoid embarrassment.
avoid errors
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He resolved to learn from his mistakes and avoid similar errors in the future.
avoid failure
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She was anxious to avoid failure.
avoid hassle
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Many couples get married abroad to avoid the hassle and cost of a big wedding.
avoid mentioning sth
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They both avoided mentioning John, though Anne longed to talk about him.
avoid publicity
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They wanted to settle the matter quietly in order to avoid bad publicity.
avoid sb’s gaze (= not look at someone )
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I avoided his gaze and just looked out of the window.
avoid the temptation to do sth
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Avoid the temptation to cheat.
avoid trouble
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We avoid trouble by planning carefully.
avoid/evade an issue ( also dodge/duck an issue informal ) (= avoid discussing an issue )
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There is no point in evading the issue any longer.
avoid/evade/dodge a question (= not give a direct answer )
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He had skilfully evaded Margie’s questions.
avoid/keep off/stay off a subject (= not talk about it )
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I knew he was trying to avoid the subject of drugs.
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She hoped that Anna would keep off the subject of Luke for the next few hours.
avoid/miss the traffic
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I left early, hoping to miss the traffic.
avoid...pitfalls
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He gave me advice on how to avoid the pitfalls of the legal process.
escape/avoid detection
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By flying low, the plane avoided detection by enemy radar.
escape/avoid injury
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Two workmen narrowly escaped injury when a wall collapsed.
escape/avoid liability
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The defendant escaped liability by proving that he had taken all possible measures to avoid the accident.
escape/avoid prosecution
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He was lucky to escape prosecution.
escape/avoid punishment
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The thieves managed to escape punishment.
(in order) to avoid confusion
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Doctors should explain their instructions to patients carefully, to avoid any confusion.
prevent/avoid damage
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Young trees need protecting to prevent damage from the wind.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
narrowly
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He sped away with them still on amber, narrowly avoiding a car coming the other way.
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And Chrysler narrowly avoided a major strike in August at its Detroit axle plant, another aging factory targeted for shutdown.
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This was narrowly avoided by producing a new programming scheme, involving local sponsorship as the future funders of individual exhibitions.
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It almost caused numerous accidents, here narrowly avoiding a head-on collision.
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An assault on the office building angered the men in the yard and violence was narrowly avoided .
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Two children in the car were rescued unhurt, and a woman inside the house narrowly avoided being hit by debris.
thus
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Governments are constantly striving to create equality thus avoiding conflict and hardship such as this Court ruling has done.
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In order to obtain better prices for their cotton, black businessmen sent it directly to Galveston, thus avoiding local middlemen.
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They can thus avoid the costs of variety and added risk in a volatile market.
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The system thus avoids the seemingly interminable delays that bedevil on-line services when they are used to transmit graphics.
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He will thus avoid buying material before it can be used by accepting a small and defined risk of delaying production.
■ NOUN
attempt
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Daak was moving again now, swinging wildly from side to side in an attempt to avoid the lasers' targeting.
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Both meant consumers spent more in an attempt to avoid paying higher sales tax.
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Beccaria's attempt to avoid considerations of responsibility and desert must be regarded as something of a failure.
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But of course he had, and my clumsy attempt to avoid detection only served to make the retribution fiercer.
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Beccaria's attempt to avoid the issue while retaining the conception of tree will was, perhaps, asking for trouble.
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Read in studio Count Nikolai Tolstoy has failed in his attempt to avoid paying libel damages.
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Meetings were still going on in Manchester in a last-minute attempt to avoid today's scheduled hearing in the High Court.
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The huge variety of shapes is partly fashion and partly an attempt to avoid a phenomenon known as spin out.
conflict
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Distribution - Setting up agency agreements while avoiding possible conflicts of interest; drafting franchise agreements as an alternative distribution method.
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Some of them stayed home to avoid the conflict , trauma, risk of public humiliation, personal injury, and death.
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Governments are constantly striving to create equality thus avoiding conflict and hardship such as this Court ruling has done.
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I hope my work on the evolution of cooperation helps the world avoid conflict .
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Part of the art is to avoid creating a permanent conflict with a section of the community.
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I was therefore a great deal more interested in avoiding conflict with Dad than I was in plumbing his psychology.
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He talked proudly of how he avoided conflicts that he previously would have plunged into.
costs
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Gusty winds are to be avoided at all costs .
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Minimizing is the first technique a self-defeating organization uses to avoid responsibility for the costs of its counterproductive actions.
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And what would those involved do differently if starting out now-or avoid at all costs ?
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In their eyes a reconciliation was to be avoided at all costs .
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The longer intervals will also avoid the costs of unnecessary testing.
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Gardeners occasionally regard shade as an evil to be avoided at all costs .
issue
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So he made a go of permanently avoiding the issue .
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They can avoid discussing the important issues by keeping us out of the debates.
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Mr Kundera was strongly attacked for his view, and Mr Duroselle appears to be avoiding the issue .
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But he was avoiding the real issue , and he knew it.
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Beccaria's attempt to avoid the issue while retaining the conception of tree will was, perhaps, asking for trouble.
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Instead, the agency now avoids guidelines on the issue altogether and simply states the lack of scientific evidence.
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This is not just avoiding violence - it is simply avoiding the issue .
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Rylander, whose re-election this year is opposed by Democrat Hector Uribe, avoided those issues .
need
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Useful to project news items, photos, diagrams, etc and avoids the need for photocopying.
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The House vote effectively ends the matter for this session, avoiding the need for debate or votes in the Senate.
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Door has special spring-loaded hinges avoiding the need for catches.
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Money will be provided for one staff development day, avoiding the need to cancel classes for the training.
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How to use negotiating skills to avoid the need to break contact.
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First, the Esop can buy existing shares in the market, avoiding the need to issue new shares.
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The analysis of price changes has the advantage of avoiding the need to define the sum invested.
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Second, it avoids the need to use the future perfect tense.
order
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He explained that he had refrained from elaborating on his opponents' anti-constitutional activities in order to avoid tension.
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In order to avoid booby-trapping ourselves, then, we must understand that drive is healthy only when married to desire.
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The archbishop came back under papal orders to avoid giving offence to the king.
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Atkinson believed that in order to avoid a similar disappointment with his new creation, he would have to leave the company.
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He was prevented from doing so by a miracle, which he prefers not to describe in order to avoid being identified.
pitfall
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I hope this will help you to avoid or alleviate the pitfalls of cold and winter skin.
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You will also know how to avoid the special pitfalls and dangers implicit in being a hospital patient.
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His reviews avoided the pitfalls of exotica and newness, drawing attention instead to the varied formal qualities of the writing.
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In short, the start-up company receives not only funding, but valuable advice to help it avoid pitfalls .
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But only if you know the market well enough to avoid the pitfalls .
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By adopting this methodical approach you should avoid the pitfalls and successfully answer any questions set on this subject.
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Precise verbal statements and descriptions avoid this pitfall .
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Most TableCurve users will already have acquired the necessary good sense to avoid such pitfalls .
problem
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It helps you understand other people's tasks, avoid problems and keep in mind that crucial overview I spoke of earlier.
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To avoid the problem , the computer would have to refresh the phosphors on the screen much more often.
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By careful drafting the drafter can avoid many of the problems associated with references to periods of time.
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Clearly some forward planning in 1992 would have given him the opportunity to organise his affairs and avoid many of his problems .
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Make his life as easy as possible when he first starts school to avoid the problem occurring in the first place.
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And if I use humour to avoid your problem or make light of it, then I diminish its significance.
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To avoid backlight exposure problems , they have been re-angled to appear against a darker background.
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To avoid settlement problems at this location a surcharge embankment was constructed and monitored over a period of 8 months.
risk
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If you enjoy an occasional drink this may do no harm but by cutting out drink altogether you avoid any possible risks .
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Similarly, Y is the average value per injury avoided by reducing risk .
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The operation will be strictly controlled to avoid any further risks .
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Even a predator as powerful as a tiger wants to avoid risk of damage to itself.
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Where possible, therefore, this is work to be avoided because of the risk of being seen as incompetent.
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The duty in the law of negligence is not a duty to exercise reasonable care to avoid risk of causing injury.
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If so, now is a good time to remove the safety-tab from the cassette to avoid the risk of accidental erasure.
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Distillation at a lower temperature avoids the risk of thermal decomposition.
trap
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A few books have avoided the trap .
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John Champagne and Bob Guadiana avoided this trap .
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During the next few months and years, we must avoid continuing in the trap that we were in before.
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Anderson combines affection and horror in his version of the seventies while avoiding the trap of nostalgia.
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To be fair to the tourists they appear to be avoiding that trap as the days trickle by before the Kandy Test.
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Dole was clearly trying to avoid the trap in which former President Bush found himself after violating the tax vow.
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Ronell avoids the trap by proceeding in ever-decreasing circles - or fractal geometry, as it is now known.
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To avoid this trap , pick from the following list of ten top orders or invent your own.
use
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This can sometimes be avoided by the use of a newly developed stent exchanger.
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Make certain that ideas are clearly delineated and most of all, avoid the use of professional jargon.
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It is essential to avoid the use of jargon.
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I have purposely avoided the use of technical terms.
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One is usually wary of text books which avoid the use of calculus.
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Deering also hit Roper with the strap and ordered him to avoid drug use and being friendly with blacks.
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However, do avoid the use of slang or dialect expressions unless the context calls directly for such deviations from normal speech.
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In addition to legally avoiding taxes through the use of loopholes, there is also the unsavory problem of illegal tax evasion.
way
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Thinking about women is a way of avoiding the thought of death - and yet women may be the end of you.
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That way we may avoid the con-sequences of too-hasty action: global warming, unforeseen pollution, imbalances of supply and demand.
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Accusing Alex had simply been a way of avoiding her own guilt and Anna's, bloody Anna's.
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They say it is a way to avoid a closer look at the venture.
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The only way to avoid that would be for the Chancellor of the Exchequer to give the health service an open-ended budget.
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The best way to avoid message overloading is to provide separate areas for different programs and to make provisions for graceful failure.
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Bombing, he asserted, was the way to avoid the unpleasant decision to send combat troops.
■ VERB
help
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I hope this will help you to avoid or alleviate the pitfalls of cold and winter skin.
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But if the guide helps corporations improve their writing, it could help investors avoid horror shows of their own.
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It can help avoid expensive and protracted litigation.
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Airline officials said the paperwork was to help passengers avoid $ 32 in taxes and fees.
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It may take longer but it helps to avoid damage.
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So he took measures after the season to help avoid injuries.
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The new research should also help to avoid freezing and storing excess embryos, she says.
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This is the how-to, practical guide that will help you avoid opportunistic detours and stay on track.
manage
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They told him they had heard that the doctor had managed to avoid them all by driving into the lamp post.
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I managed to avoid answering that question all afternoon.
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We had managed to avoid the insupportable topic of war.
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How should couples manage this testing to avoid unnecessary anxiety?
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It can only be hoped that the newly aggressive financial players of the Thatcher era manage to avoid the same errors.
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For the past two nights she had managed to avoid him.
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As young men, they managed to avoid falling out over the tendentious terms of their father's will.
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The truck passes, and like jet fighters at an air show, we somehow manage to avoid contact.
seek
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In posing such a possibility Bukharin was of course seeking to avoid it.
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Each player seeks weakness, predictability, and pattern in the others and seeks to avoid it in himself.
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Nevertheless, it has become established as the only real alternative for organisations seeking to avoid or escape proprietary, single-vendor systems.
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In each instance, you see a course of action that brings about the very consequences it sought to avoid .
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So she had sought to avoid it, only to end up back where she had started.
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Lydgate returns to Middlemarch, overjoyed now with what he once sought to avoid , a dependence upon Bulstrode.
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Chalabi sought to avoid trouble with the White House.
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These primary processes always seek pleasure and avoid pain, that is, they function according to the pleasure principle.
try
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She tried to avoid Bryony, which was difficult because she could not work out her routine.
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Dole has repeatedly tried to avoid giving Democrats the opportunity for a straight vote on the wage.
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Good racehorse trainers recognise this, and try to avoid their horses being beaten or having confrontations with riders.
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I am therefore trying to avoid cutting and carving as much as possible.
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He tried not to avoid any members of the committee, even if he thought they were going to vote no.
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I try to avoid objects which limit a painting in space and time.
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Many hospitals deliberately tried to avoid challenging or openly discouraging the parents' hopes and expectations for a perfect or near-perfect recovery.
want
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The Commission wants to avoid unjustified double taxation of boats, and will be making proposals accordingly.
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The council wants to avoid complaints from shoppers who find some buskers a headache.
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It was then that Rudolfo, if he wanted to avoid suspicion, would lead his flock down to the villa.
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Second, Fed officials want to avoid a move that could turn out to be unneeded and slow the economy too much.
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The form of canons is important, especially if we want to avoid brevity.
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I explained that I wanted to avoid misquoting anyone.
wish
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So they'd seem to be ideal for anyone wishing to avoid police cameras.
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It is making it very difficult for those who wish to avoid the corruption to do so....
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There are, however, shortcomings the collector will wish to avoid .
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You may also wish to avoid gifts for the handyman.
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The human being prefers to be directed, wishing to avoid responsibility.
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Perhaps it's mountain snobbery to wish to avoid such a crowd, and if so then I am a mountain snob.
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In his view, this produced better results because the companies wished to avoid their respectability being tarnished.
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It may easily be objected that if he had wished to avoid becoming archbishop he had simply to refuse.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
fall into/avoid the trap of doing sth
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But do not fall into the trap of doing something I saw recently.
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Don't fall into the trap of comparing your wages and conditions with other volunteers and development workers.
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Duffy refuses to fall into the trap of spoon-feeding the material to passive students, which only increases their passivity.
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During the 90s Washington fell into the trap of allowing events to dictate the relationship, with increasingly destabilising results.
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Journalists can fall into the trap of being hypercritical.
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She was not going to fall into the trap of thinking she wanted Vitor as Vitor.
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So answer this question truthfully, lest your smart organization fall into the trap of continuing to outsmart itself.
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When we tie it to jobs, or to survival needs, we fall into the trap of mechanistic literacy.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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Children quickly learn how to avoid punishment.
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Civilian casualties must be avoided at all costs.
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Do you think he's gone away to avoid talking to the police?
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Drivers are advised to avoid Elm Street today due to heavy traffic and long delays.
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Except when they were filming, the two actors avoided each other like the plague.
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Have you been avoiding me?
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I'm sure Sarah's been avoiding me recently.
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I had to swerve to avoid the truck.
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I managed to avoid the worst of the traffic.
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Import duties on some goods can be avoided if you know how.
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Penny jumped out of the way to avoid being hit by the falling branch.
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Police were anxious to avoid any ugly scenes when the two boys made their first appearance in court nine days ago.
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She's a good manager, because she never avoids dealing with the problems of her staff.
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The book is intended to help students avoid common errors.
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The company is anxious to avoid an expensive court case.
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The driver of the car said he tried to brake to avoid the accident, but it was already too late.
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Try to avoid subjects like sex or religion that might offend people.
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Typical politician! He just kept avoiding the question.
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We must, above all, avoid involvement in the war.
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We take every precaution to avoid accidents.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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But as they minded their church business, they could not avoid taking political stands as well.
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He avoids mentioning Home Office research that suggests that there is a relationship between deprivation and crime.
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Hoping to avoid delays and embarrassing publicity, in July the council started quietly pressuring Pike to disengage from the venture.
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I switched ends on the stretcher to avoid the stain from the piece of meat.
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Journalists now subject him to the scrutiny he avoided in his stealthy rise.
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To avoid any possible embarrassment the receptionist should show the lady to a seat in the lounge.