Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Obviate
Ob′vi-ate
,Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Obviated
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Obviating
.] 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 goingTo lay down everything in its full light, so as to
obviate
all exceptions. Woodward.
Webster 1828 Edition
Obviate
OB'VIATE
,Verb.
T.
Properly, to meet in the way; to oppose; hence, to prevent by interception, or to remove at the beginning or in the outset; hence in present usage, to remove in general, as difficulties or objections; to clear the way of obstacles in reasoning, deliberating or planning.
To lay down every thing in its full light, so as to obviate all exceptions.
Definition 2024
obviate
obviate
English
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 be necessary or required).
- (transitive) To avoid (a future problem or difficult situation).
- 1826, Richard Reece, A Practical Dissertation on the Means of Obviating & Treating the Varieties of Costiveness, page 181:
- A mild dose of a warm active aperient to obviate costiveness, or to produce two motions daily, is generally very beneficial.
- 2004, David J. Anderson, Agile Management for Software Engineering, page 180:
- Some change requests, rather than extend the scope, obviate some of the existing scope of a project.
- 2008, William S. Kroger, Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis: In Medicine, Dentistry, and Psychology, page 163:
- Thus, to obviate resistance, the discussion should be relevant to the patient′s problems.
- 1826, Richard Reece, A Practical Dissertation on the Means of Obviating & Treating the Varieties of Costiveness, page 181:
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."
Translations
to bypass a requirement