AVERT

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does avert mean? 

• AVERT (verb)
  The verb AVERT has 2 senses:

1. prevent the occurrence of; prevent from happening

2. turn away or aside

  Familiarity information: AVERT used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AVERT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they avert    ... he / she / it averts   
Past simple: averted   
Past participle: averted   
-ing form: averting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Prevent the occurrence of; prevent from happening

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

avert; avoid; debar; deflect; fend off; forefend; forfend; head off; obviate; stave off; ward off

Context example:

avert a strike

Hypernyms (to "avert" is one way to...):

forbid; foreclose; forestall; preclude; prevent (keep from happening or arising; make impossible)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

avertable; avertible (capable of being avoided or warded off)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Turn away or aside

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

avert; turn away

Context example:

They averted their eyes when the King entered

Hypernyms (to "avert" is one way to...):

turn (change orientation or direction, also in the abstract sense)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

aversion (the act of turning yourself (or your gaze) away)

 Context examples 

Beth whisked it off, and in her half-averted face read a tender sorrow that made her own eyes fill.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The bent head, the averted eye, the faltering voice, the wincing figure—these, and not the unshrinking gaze and frank reply, are the true signals of passion.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Her face was averted from those who had made the attack, and turned towards her aunt.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

And now he unknit his black brows; looked down, smiling at me, and stroked my hair, as if well pleased at seeing a danger averted.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

For my own part, I thought that if Mrs. Harker realised the danger herself, it was much pain as well as much danger averted.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He does not say so, but I can read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Hast forgotten that the five-and-thirtieth rule of the order is that in the presence of a woman the face should be ever averted and the eyes cast down?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I remember that during our short visit we found the vicar garrulous, but his lodger strangely reticent, a sad-faced, introspective man, sitting with averted eyes, brooding apparently upon his own affairs.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Early detection using a simple urine test for protein can also help avert more serious cases of the disease.

(Managing diabetes key to lowering kidney disease, SciDev.Net)

Bahia has become the seventh Brazilian state to redlist endangered species for protection, a move that has been welcomed as an important incentive for initiatives and policies that could avert the threats to these species.

(Over 300 animal species threatened in Bahia, Agência Brasil)