Avoid and Delay

avoid

Stay clear from; keep away from; keep out of the way of someone or something.
- usage: "Her former friends now avoid her"
Prevent the occurrence of; prevent from happening.
- usage: "Let's avoid a confrontation"; "head off a confrontation"; "avert a strike"
- synonyms: debar, forefend, forfend, obviate, deflect, avert, head off, stave off, fend off, ward off
Refrain from doing something.
- usage: "She refrains from calling her therapist too often"; "He should avoid publishing his wife's memories"
Refrain from certain foods or beverages.
- usage: "I keep off drugs"; "During Ramadan, Muslims avoid tobacco during the day"
- synonyms: keep off
Declare invalid.
- usage: "The contract was annulled"; "void a plea"
- synonyms: invalidate, annul, quash, void, nullify

(a.) To make void; to annul or vacate; to refute.
(a.) To emit or throw out; to void; as, to avoid excretions.
(v.i.) To become void or vacant.
(a.) To get rid of.
(a.) To keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor no to meet; to shun; to abstain from; as, to avoid the company of gamesters.
(a.) To defeat or evade; to invalidate. Thus, in a replication, the plaintiff may deny the defendant's plea or confess it, and avoid it by stating new matter.
(a.) To empty.
(v.i.) To retire; to withdraw.
(a.) To quit or evacuate; to withdraw from.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

delay

Time during which some action is awaited.
- usage: "instant replay caused too long a delay"; "he ordered a hold in the action"
- synonyms: hold, time lag, postponement, wait
The act of delaying; inactivity resulting in something being put off until a later time.
- synonyms: holdup

Cause to be slowed down or delayed.
- usage: "Traffic was delayed by the bad weather"; "she delayed the work that she didn't want to perform"
- synonyms: detain, hold up
Act later than planned, scheduled, or required.
- usage: "Don't delay your application to graduate school or else it won't be considered"
Stop or halt.
- usage: "Please stay the bloodshed"
- synonyms: stay, detain
Slow the growth or development of.
- usage: "The brain damage will retard the child's language development"
- synonyms: check, retard

(v.i.) To move slowly; to stop for a time; to linger; to tarry.
(n.) To put off; to defer; to procrastinate; to prolong the time of or before.
(n.) To allay; to temper.
(v.) A putting off or deferring; procrastination; lingering inactivity; stop; detention; hindrance.
(n.) To retard; to stop, detain or hinder, for a time; to retard the motion or time of arrival, of; as, the mail is delayed by a heavy fall of snow.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

Delay is the amount of time that elapses between a change in an input event and the resultant change in a related output event or time series.