avoidant

avoid +‎ -ant

• IPA^(key): /əˈvɔɪdənt/

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avoidant (comparative more avoidant, superlative most avoidant)

1. Exhibiting avoidance; avoiding something.
   • 1867, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (translator), The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, Boston: Ticknor and Fields, Volume 2, Purgatorio, Canto 26, lines 43-46, p. 167,

     Then as the cranes, that to Riphæan mountains
     Might fly in part, and part towards the sands,
     These of the frost, those of the sun avoidant,
     One folk is going, and the other coming,

avoidant (plural avoidants)

1. A person who exhibits avoidance.
   • 2011, Samuel Barondes, Making Sense of People, page 46:

     But unlike schizoids, with whom they are sometimes confused, avoidants are actually eager to socialize. The reason they hang back is their worry that they are personally unappealing […]