obviate

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (1)  · 

View all »
Definitions (6)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. transitive verb To anticipate and dispose of effectively; render unnecessary. See Synonyms at prevent.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples

  • In a word, difficulties of various kinds were constantly recurring, which required the most ceaseless vigilance and the shrewdest sagacity on the part of the two brothers to obviate or overcome. —  Life of Tecumseh and of His Brother the Prophet
  • At this time fears of an invasion were circulated; to obviate which, Mr. Spottiswoode observed, that Mr. Fraser the engineer, who had lately come from Dunkirk, said, that the French had the same fears of us. —  Life of Johnson
  • When it did go off, which was about the first of March, 1831, the county was so flooded as to make traveling by land impracticable, to obviate which difficulty they purchased a large canoe, and came down the Sangamon River in it. —  A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln
  • By the insertion of a few occasional sentences, I shall obviate the disadvantages that are apt to arise from an interrupted narration. —  Memoirs of My Life and Writings
  • This accumulation of ice reduced the buoyancy of the boat, and to that extent was an added peril; but it possessed a notable advantage from one point of view. —  The Greatest Survival Stories Ever Told
 

Tags

obviate hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

Obviate has been looked up 497 times, favorited 4 times, listed 72 times, and commented on once.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Latin obviāre, obviāt-, to hinder, from obvius, in the way; see obvious.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Late Latin obviatus, past participle of obviare (later Italian ovviare = Provencal Spanish Portuguese obviar = French obvier), meet, withstand, prevent, from obvius, in the way, meeting: see obvious.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/ˈɑbvɪeɪt/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word a few times a year.

Recent Lookups

desuetude · Madhuku · well-constituted · Capps · heartfelt

Recent Favorites

doxastic · bissextile day · airship · cloud-shadows · ombrophobous

Recent Pronunciations

milosrdenstvi · lichen-covered · futon · sagacity · monoragngocious