1. stave off
In this climate you should drink a lot of water to stave off dehydration.
And so you get good about using the technology to figure out how to stave off that boredom.
to stave off means to stop or to keep an unpleasant feeling away. In this case she means boredom.
The snack helped her to stave off hunger.
The company managed to stave off bankruptcy for another few months.
Sport which the students could play during the inter to stave off boredom.
managed to stave off the invaders
To stave off autopilot snacking on sweets, for example, swap the cookie jar with a fruit bowl.
To stave off bodily decay I began personal training.
They say that if you take extra vitamins, you may be able to stave off/prevent the flu.
2. avoid
An expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes that can be made in his field, and how to avoid them.
avoid confrontation
You really ought to think before you open your mouth, you'd avoid a lot of misunderstandings that way.
He spoke of sex in a rather businesslike manner, which was how he tried to avoid talking about his problems with intimacy.
Friendly Reminder: Please keep in mind the closing time of the line you need to switch to, so as to avoid delays in your trip.
When there were unexpected expenses in the household of me and my wife, we could not avoid pawning our belongings.
A new book expected to come out this semester is about how to avoid financial problems in difficult times.
However, I recommend that you take the JR Narita Express (a train leaves every 30-60 minutes from the airport), to avoid the complexity of changing trains.
The only useful knowledge is that which teaches us how to seek what is good and avoid what is evil.
If feeling sick of the world could by itself grant saintliness, I don't see how I could avoid canonization.
White lies could help us to be diplomatic and avoid hard feelings and arguments which can ruin a day - or a friendship.
In some situations, telling a white lie could be used to avoid people to be disappointed or get angry by or with someone.
If a high hill stood between A and B, it was important to decide whether the line should climb over it, pierce it with a tunnel, or make a detour to avoid it.
Walakum-us-Salam, Al-Sayib! Dima replied, but raised the volume on his phone this time, so as to avoid making this a duplicate sentence. "What are you up to these days?"
Crews must take precautions to avoid being contaminated or to avoid releasing contamination in the ground.