Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1952 (SND Vol. III). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

EVITE, v. Also aveet, eveet; †eveat (Sc. 1721–22 R. Wodrow Sufferings (1828) IV. 519). To avoid, escape, evade, shun (Sc. 1752 D. Hume Polit. Discourses xiv. 56). Obs. in Eng. since 17th cent. [ə′vit]Sc. 1703 Seafield Letters (S.H.S.) 7:
Far greater inconveniences are evited by accepting of it, as I have above represented.Sc. 1728 Ramsay Poems II. 236:
And smiling, ca' her little Foolie, Syne with a Kiss evite a Toolie.Slk. 1824 Hogg Confessions 265:
She stated that she must see me, and if I refused her satisfaction there, she would compel it where I should not evite her.Bwk. 1859 P. Landreth J. Spindle (1911) 6:
I aveeted their girn ance.Sc. 1893 Stevenson Catriona ix.:
“And how are they to bring in Alan till they can catch him?” says I. “Ah, but there is a way to evite that arrestment,” said he.Abd. 1926 P. Giles in Abd. Univ. Review (July) 222:
Bit mony an ulldeer hid t' come t' Sawtie in order t' eveet suspeecion.Ayr. 1940 (per Fif.¹):
An old Ayrshire woman told me that she was seventy and was having her first illness: “Ye can win on a lang time, but you canna evite it.”