English

Verb

eschew ‎(third-person singular simple present eschews, present participle eschewing, simple past and past participle eschewed)

1. (transitive, formal) To avoid; to shun, to shy away from.

Usage notes

• The verb eschew is not normally applied to the avoidance or shunning of a person or physical object, but rather, only to the avoidance or shunning of an idea, concept, or other intangible.

Quotations

• 1599, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor

  What cannot be eschew’d must be embrac’d.

• 1611, Bible (KJV), Peter-Chapter-3/#11 1 Peter 3:11:

  Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.

• 1927, H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror at Red Hook

  He could afford no servants, and would admit but few visitors to his absolute solitude; eschewing close friendships and receiving his rare acquaintances in one of the three ground-floor rooms which he kept in order.

• 2014 November 14, Blake Bailey, “'Tennessee Williams,' by John Lahr [print version: Theatrical victory of art over life, International New York Times, 18 November 2014, p. 13]”, in The New York Times:

  [S]he [Edwina, mother of Tennessee Williams] was indeed Amanda [Wingfield, character in Williams' play The Glass Menagerie] in the flesh: a doughty chatterbox from Ohio who adopted the manner of a Southern belle and eschewed both drink and sex to the greatest extent possible.

Derived terms

• umbeschew

Related terms

• shy

Translations

References

1. 1 2 Concise Oxford English Dictionary
2. ↑ the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
3. ↑ MacMillan's British dictionary
4. 1 2 3 4 5 Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, eleventh edition
5. ↑ Dictionary.com's (primary) dictionary
6. 1 2 Keynon and Knott's A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English
7. ↑ Collins English Dictionary, tenth edition
8. ↑ John Walker's A Critical Pronuncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language, which quotes James Elphinston, who also preferred the spelling eskew