avert
To stop something bad or dangerous before it happens.
To stop something harmful, dangerous, or unwanted from happening or developing.
To move your eyes or face so you are not looking at something.
To turn your eyes or face away from something, especially because it is unpleasant, embarrassing, or you do not want to see it.
- Base: avert
- 3rd Person Singular: averts
- Present Participle: averting
- Past: averted
avert a crisis
1Prevent a serious crisis
To stop a serious problem situation before it happens.
- The deal with the unions helped avert a crisis at the company.
- Strong leadership is needed to avert a political crisis.
avert conflict
1Prevent serious conflict
To stop serious fighting or strong disagreement before it starts.
- Mediation may help avert conflict between the two groups.
- Early talks could avert conflict over the new law.
avert disaster
1Prevent a very bad event
To stop a very bad and serious event from happening.
- Quick thinking by the captain helped avert disaster at sea.
- Better maintenance could have averted disaster at the power plant.
avert his gaze
1Turn his gaze away
For a man or boy to move his eyes away so he is not looking at something.
- He averted his gaze when she looked at him.
- The witness averted his gaze, clearly uncomfortable with the question.
avert one's eyes
1Turn your eyes away
To move your eyes away so you do not look at something.
- He averted his eyes as they carried out the injured man.
- Many viewers averted their eyes during the most violent scenes.
avert tragedy
1Prevent a very sad event
To stop a very sad or deadly event from happening.
- Firefighters arrived in time to avert tragedy.
- Only quick action by the teachers averted tragedy at the school.
avert war
1Prevent war from starting
To stop a war from beginning.
- Diplomats are working hard to avert war in the region.
- They signed the agreement in a last attempt to avert war.
avert your eyes
1Turn your eyes away (command)
To move your eyes away from something when someone tells you not to look.
- Parents told their children to avert their eyes from the screen.
- If you are sensitive to blood, you may want to avert your eyes now.