obviate

1. 1

   To anticipate and prevent or bypass (something which would otherwise have been necessary or required); to render (something) unnecessary.transitive

   • 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.
2. 2

   To avoid (a future problem or difficult situation).transitive

   • A mild dose of a warm active aperient to obviate costiveness, or to produce two motions daily, is generally very beneficial.
   • Some change requests, rather than extend the scope, obviate some of the existing scope of a project.

syn. avert · preclude · prevent

ant. ensure · entail · necessitate · require

1. 1

   Synonym of obviative.

1. 1

   Synonym of obviative.not-comparable

   • Colville has a rich deictic system with forms which distinguish, for example, between source and location, with each possibility characterized as proximate and obviate as well (Mattina, 1973).
   • The renovated system involved an obviate-proximate pronominal alternation (yu- vs. mu- respectively in Tolowa; see Bommelyn 1997), with the pronouns coming most likely out of the deictic pronoun system.