What's the difference between avert and shirk?

Avert


Definition:

  • (n.) To turn aside, or away; as, to avert the eyes from an object; to ward off, or prevent, the occurrence or effects of; as, how can the danger be averted? "To avert his ire."
  • (v. i.) To turn away.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) EEG arousal diminished as a function of distance, while arousal for direct gaze was always higher than for averted gaze, whatever the distance.
  • (2) Customers won a significant victory in the battle with the banks earlier this month when a mass hearing was averted at Hull county court.
  • (3) Dedicate it to the off-the-cuff remark – the gaffe, even – which averts a war.
  • (4) Tragedy was averted because there was a little delay as the prayers did not commence in earnest and the bomb strapped to the body of the girl went off and killed her,” he added.
  • (5) By 2020, the Gavi Alliance estimates that pentavalent vaccines will avert more than 7 million deaths.
  • (6) The channelling of these monohydroxy fatty acids to cholesteryl esters provides a mechanism which can alter the amount of lipoxygenase products incorporated into cellular phospholipids, thus averting deleterious changes to cell membranes.
  • (7) The people were free, the dictator was dead, a mooted massacre had been averted – and all this without any obvious boots on the ground.
  • (8) A high potassium diet could possibly preserve these arteries and avert much renal failure.
  • (9) This preliminary evaluation suggests that needle laparoscopy may avert bowel perforation in some instances and may permit laparoscopic tubal sterilization to be performed in some women who would otherwise, because of multiple previous operations, be denied laparoscopy.
  • (10) As things stand, a second Great Depression has been averted, but growth has ranged from the weak in Europe to the unspectacular in the United States.
  • (11) A radial orientation of the buckle averts this complication.
  • (12) George Osborne averted a Tory backbench rebellion in the Commons on Monday when the Treasury gave a powerful hint that the government could defer a planned 3p increase in fuel duty.
  • (13) The younger the infant and the longer the breastfeeding, the greater the estimated benefits in terms of deaths averted.
  • (14) She writes: Reassurances from the US that short-term measures will be instigated to avert the upcoming debt-ceiling deadline have given European equity markets a jolt upwards, helping to stem some of the risk aversion of the past few days.
  • (15) According to Defra, the hierarchy is a means to avert "unnecessary impacts on the environment" from development.
  • (16) Despite spending a record amount of money to sway the mid-term US elections, environmental groups and high-profile donors failed to avert a sweeping Republican victory last week, in which candidates opposing the regulation of greenhouse gases and championing the expansion of tar sands pipelines won big.
  • (17) Over the next 30-50 years, we may have breakthrough technologies that close the loop by recycling steel or using very different cement types but for now, we have to deal with the technologies we have.” In many ways, the debate over carbon capture and storage is a struggle between two competing visions of the societal transformation needed to avert climate disaster.
  • (18) The company has lurched from one crisis to the next over the past two years, including industrial action this spring by the chorus, with a strike only narrowly averted .
  • (19) However, the mass campaign is probably less cost-effective in averting neonatal tetanus deaths, due to its broader targetting.
  • (20) He told MPs: “We chose a difficult compromise to avert the most extreme plans by the most extreme circles in Europe.” Although the leftist leader urged his Syriza party to endorse the reforms, 36 MPs either voted against or abstained on the measures, three fewer than in a similar vote last week.

Shirk


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To procure by petty fraud and trickery; to obtain by mean solicitation.
  • (v. t.) To avoid; to escape; to neglect; -- implying unfaithfulness or fraud; as, to shirk duty.
  • (v. i.) To live by shifts and fraud; to shark.
  • (v. i.) To evade an obligation; to avoid the performance of duty, as by running away.
  • (n.) One who lives by shifts and tricks; one who avoids the performance of duty or labor.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Others have found more striking-power, or more simple poetry, but none an interpretation at once so full (in the sense of histrionic volume) and so consistently bringing all the aspects together, without any shirking or pruning away of what is inconvenient.
  • (2) A new report is just another excuse for those in power to shirk responsibility, to blame the people they have already degraded once and who cannot defend themselves.
  • (3) Time at home, alone, without chores, is still often felt as shirking responsibility.
  • (4) He’s taking a lot of stick at the moment – as everyone is – but it is a measure of him that he fronts it up every day and doesn’t shirk it.
  • (5) Shirk said one-party China – a country most still associate with little more than economic success and autocratic governance – saw a chance to rebrand itself as a benevolent great power acting in the common good.
  • (6) Neville has work ahead; the good news is that he will not shirk it.
  • (7) While some bosses shirk from defending their personal pay deals, Horta-Osório – whose 10-strong management team cashed in on £23m through the same bonus scheme – does not.
  • (8) Schreiber points out that some of the debates against the ERA were about "masculinity run amok": "Phyllis Schlafly said if we were are treated as equals, then men will shirk their responsibilities," she notes.
  • (9) Poon said Beijing was attempting to shift the focus on to how much medical attention Liu was receiving to shirk responsibility for its “cold-blooded” treatment of the democracy activist.
  • (10) They chased every ball, never shirked a tackle and, when they needed a centre-forward to show composure and experience, they had a 32-year-old from Stoke City, with silver flecks in his hair, who passed the test with distinction.
  • (11) Focusing on glorifying and eternalising the leaders and taking refuge in God and inserting them into hidden shirk [idolatry] through immortalising ephemeral, temporary personalities.
  • (12) At the same time, we will not shirk from vigorously defending our right and proper role to expose wrongdoing in the public interest."
  • (13) Are workers seen as a burden, a cost, people who would rather skive and shirk responsibilities, and who have to be supervised rigorously at all times?
  • (14) Jones said Australia was engaging with the UN with goodwill on how best to tackle the crisis, and not on how to shirk its international responsibilities.
  • (15) As Republicans we will not shirk our responsibility and we believe that it is now necessary for us to take this lead in bringing the agreement to its conclusion.
  • (16) "My desire to devolve authority has nothing to do with a wish to shirk responsibility.
  • (17) But he has never been one to shirk a challenge, choosing to serve in Vietnam so he could stay in the US after moving to New York in the 1960s.
  • (18) Some European partners are shirking from the task,” she said.
  • (19) However, human rights groups say Britain is shirking its legal responsibilities – fearful that the route could be seen as a “back door” to Britain – and coercing people into staying put while paying Cyprus to house and feed them.
  • (20) It’s not me shirking my responsibilities, I take internet security seriously, but I can’t always protect myself against an army of online fraud experts.