OBVIATE

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

(verb) prevent the occurrence of; prevent from happening; “Let’s avoid a confrontation”; “head off a confrontation”; “avert a strike”

obviate, rid of, eliminate

(verb) do away with

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Verb

obviate (third-person singular simple present obviates, present participle obviating, simple past and past participle obviated)

(transitive) To anticipate and prevent or bypass (something which would otherwise have been necessary or required).

(transitive) To avoid (a future problem or difficult situation).

Usage notes

Garner's Modern American Usage (2009) notes that phrases like obviate the necessity or obviate the need are sometimes considered redundant, but "these phrases are not redundancies, for the true sense of obviate the necessity is 'to prevent the necessity (from arising),' hence to make unnecessary."

Source: Wiktionary


Ob"vi*ate, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Obviated; p. pr. & vb. n. Obviating.] Etym: [L. obviare; ob (see Ob-) + viare to go, fr. via way. See Voyage.]

1. To meet in the way. [Obs.] Not to stir a step to obviate any of a different religion. Fuller.

2. To anticipate; to prevent by interception; to remove from the way or path; to make unnecessary; as, to obviate the necessity of going. To lay down everything in its full light, so as to obviate all exceptions. Woodward.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



RESET




Word of the Day

23 December 2024

QUANDONG

(noun) Australian tree having hard white timber and glossy green leaves with white flowers followed by one-seeded glossy blue fruit


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