What's the difference between abstain and avoid?

Abstain


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To hold one's self aloof; to forbear or refrain voluntarily, and especially from an indulgence of the passions or appetites; -- with from.
  • (v. t.) To hinder; to withhold.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Also critical to Mr Smith's victory was the decision over lunch of the MSF technical union's delegation to abstain on the rule changes.
  • (2) Abstainer rates in the total population controlled for treatment decreased with increasing WPY (P less than 0.005).
  • (3) The adjusted odds ratio of having one or more hospitalization for current drinkers relative to life-long abstainers in females was 0.67 (95 per cent confidence interval 0.57-0.79) and in males was 0.74 (0.57-0.96).
  • (4) Britain and France formally announced this week they would abstain, along with Portugal and Bosnia.
  • (5) Although close to 50% of this sample were abstainers, 11% of the drinkers were found to be heavy drinkers, averaging more than two drinks daily, while 18% were high-maximum drinkers, consuming at least five drinks on an occasion prior to pregnancy.
  • (6) Compared to abstainers, the heaviest drinkers had the highest systolic (JM, p = 0.001; WM, p less than 0.01) and diastolic (JM, p less than 0.002; WM, p less than 0.05) blood pressures.
  • (7) The Labour leadership is understood to be pressing for its MPs to abstain on the grounds that the party’s policy is under review and the real vote on Trident will come in the decisive “main gate” decision on renewal next year.
  • (8) But the prime minister failed to win the support of more than half of his 303 MPs after 136 Tories rejected the measure and around 40 Tory MPs either did not vote or actively abstained.
  • (9) 36% of the group had abstained from further drug taking, 27% were taking them periodically, 32% had to be treated again and 5% had deteriorated (trend towards invalidism).
  • (10) Their occurrence rules out any organic involvement almost with certainty, and allows abstaining from additional examinations, or keeping them within minimum limits.
  • (11) They all abstain from social media for fear of getting embroiled in some brouhaha.
  • (12) Heidi Allen, the Conservative MP for South Cambridgeshire, abstained in last week’s vote but said she and others would defy the party whip if concessions were not offered.
  • (13) Fourteen months later, 41 subjects (41%) were classified as resumers; 62 (59%) were abstainers.
  • (14) This finding indicates that many young people exaggerate the risk of losing status among their peers because they abstain from drinking.
  • (15) At their explosive 80-minute meeting, the union's delegates - who hold 4.5 per cent of the vote - voted by 19-17 to abstain because the OMOV rule change included a further measure promoting more women MPs, one of the union's longstanding causes.
  • (16) All subjects had been instructed to abstain from smoking for at least 10 h before and during the examination.
  • (17) The CDC and other health agencies have been operating for months on the assumption that Zika causes brain defects, and they have been warning pregnant women to use mosquito repellent, avoid travel to Zika-stricken regions and either abstain from sex or rely on condoms.
  • (18) On same-sex marriage, Leadsom said she supported partnerships between gay couples but had reservations about the legislation that led her to abstain during the parliamentary vote.
  • (19) The salivary cotinine concentration after 1 week in 60 abstainers was 183 ng.ml-1.
  • (20) Never smoking abstainers die at about the same rate as never smoking moderate drinkers.

Avoid


Definition:

  • (a.) To empty.
  • (a.) To emit or throw out; to void; as, to avoid excretions.
  • (a.) To quit or evacuate; to withdraw from.
  • (a.) To make void; to annul or vacate; to refute.
  • (a.) To keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor no to meet; to shun; to abstain from; as, to avoid the company of gamesters.
  • (a.) To get rid of.
  • (a.) To defeat or evade; to invalidate. Thus, in a replication, the plaintiff may deny the defendant's plea, or confess it, and avoid it by stating new matter.
  • (v. i.) To retire; to withdraw.
  • (v. i.) To become void or vacant.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) "Zayani reportedly cited the political sensitivity of naturalising Sunni expatriates and wanted to avoid provoking the opposition," the embassy said.
  • (2) The catheter must be meticulously fixed to the skin to avoid its movement.
  • (3) Sample processing appears effective in avoiding spontaneous oxalogenesis.
  • (4) The results of the evaluation confirm that most problems seen by first level medical personnel in developing countries are simple, repetitive, and treatable at home or by a paramedical worker with a few safe, essential drugs, thus avoiding unnecessary visits to a doctor.
  • (5) A 24-h test trial employing a dry target demonstrated a robust memory for the training manifested in passive avoidance behavior.
  • (6) But it will be a subtle difference, because it's already abundantly clear there's no danger of the war being suddenly forgotten, or made to seem irrelevant to our sense of what Europe and the world has to avoid repeating.
  • (7) Madrid now hopes that a growing clamour for future rescues of Europe's banks to be done directly, without money going via governments, may still allow it to avoid accepting loans that would add to an already fast-growing national debt.
  • (8) Obamacare price hikes show that now is the time to be bold | Celine Gounder Read more No longer able to keep patients off their plans outright, insurers have resorted to other ways to discriminate and avoid paying for necessary treatments.
  • (9) The UK's standard position on ICC indictees is to avoid all contact unless "essential".
  • (10) This death toll represents 25% of avoidable adult deaths in developing countries.
  • (11) Surgical removal was avoided without complications by detaching it with a ring stripper.
  • (12) Crown prince Sultan Bin Abdel Aziz said yesterday that the state had "spared no effort" to avoid such disasters but added that "it cannot stop what God has preordained.
  • (13) Mindful of their own health ahead of their mission, astronauts at the Russia-leased launchpad in Kazakhstan remain in strict isolation in the days ahead of any launch to avoid exposure to infection.
  • (14) This method avoids disturbance of the cellular metabolism.
  • (15) We determined to further clarify the mechanism of this transmural coronary "steal" employing intracoronary DP administration, thereby avoiding systemic hypotension.
  • (16) Maintenance therapy was always steroid-free to start with (cyclosporin+azathioprine) but in almost one half of our oldest survivors, it failed to avoid rejection and we had to add low-dose oral steroids for at least several months.
  • (17) Finally, before the advent of the third-party payment, operations were avoided because of the financial burden.
  • (18) Long-distanced urethrocystopexy which permits to avoid an unwanted increase of outflow resistance with following retention of urine should be preferred.
  • (19) We conclude that mortality rates in the elderly could be improved by encouraging elective surgery and avoiding diagnostic laparatomy in patients with incurable surgical disease.
  • (20) The labia minora as a pedicle graft avoids the problems encountered by conventional methods.