Obviate Meaning
/ˈɒb.viˌeɪt/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
verbTo anticipate and prevent or bypass (something which would otherwise have been necessary or required); to render (something) unnecessary.
verbTo avoid (a future problem or difficult situation).
Sentence Examples
The new policy will obviate the need for extra paperwork.
The solution will obviate the risk of accidents.
The new software will obviate the need for paperwork.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
The new technology will ____ the need for paper records by digitizing everything.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The new automation system will ____ the need for manual data entry, saving the company time.
Word Origin & History
First attested in 1567; borrowed from Latin obviātus, perfect passive participle of obviō (“to block, to hinder”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"[…] and in the kindest manner she now urged Fanny’s taking one for the cross and to keep for her sake, saying everything she could think of to obviate the scruples which were making Fanny start back at first with a look of horror at the proposal."
— 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter XXVI, in Mansfield Park: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:
"The door it was necessary to keep ajar in hers, as in most cottages, because of the smoke; but she obviated the effect of the ribbon of light through the chink by hanging a cloth over that also."
— 1886 May – 1887 April, Thomas Hardy, chapter III, in The Woodlanders […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
"A mild dose of a warm active aperient to obviate costiveness, or to produce two motions daily, is generally very beneficial."
— 1826, Richard Reece, A Practical Dissertation on the Means of Obviating & Treating the Varieties of Costiveness, page 181:
"If the predisposition to the disease has arisen from a plethoric state of the system, or from a turgescence in the vessels of the head, this is to be obviated by bleeding, both generally and topically, but more particularly the latter; an abstemious diet and proper exercise; and by a seton in the neck."
— 1842, Gibbons Merle, John Reitch, The Domestic Dictionary and Housekeeper’s Manual: Comprising Everything Related to Cookery, Diet, Economy and Medicine. By Gibbons Merle. The Medical Portion of the Work by John Reitch, M.D., London: William Strange, 21, Paternoster Row, →OCLC, page 360, column 2:
"Some change requests, rather than extend the scope, obviate some of the existing scope of a project."
— 2004, David J. Anderson, Agile Management for Software Engineering, page 180:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The new technology will ____ the need for paper records by digitizing everything.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The new automation system will ____ the need for manual data entry, saving the company time.