Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A fixed, intense dislike; repugnance.
  • noun The cause or object of such a feeling.
  • noun The avoidance of a thing, situation, or behavior because it has been associated with an unpleasant or painful stimulus.
  • noun The act or fact of averting.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A turning away; a change of application.
  • noun The act of averting or warding off
  • noun An averted state of the mind or feelings; opposition or repugnance of mind; fixed or habitual dislike; antipathy: used absolutely or with to, sometimes with from, for, or toward.
  • noun Opposition or contrariety of nature: applied to inanimate substances.
  • noun A cause of dislike; an object of repugnance.
  • noun Synonyms Hatred, Dislike, Antipathy (see antipathy); unwillingness, shrinking, hesitation, disrelish, distaste, detestation.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete A turning away.
  • noun Opposition or repugnance of mind; fixed dislike; antipathy; disinclination; reluctance.
  • noun The object of dislike or repugnance.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Opposition or repugnance of mind; fixed dislike.
  • noun An object of dislike or repugnance.
  • noun obsolete The act of turning away from an object.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a feeling of intense dislike
  • noun the act of turning yourself (or your gaze) away

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin aversio, possibly via French aversion

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Examples

  • And typically what priests look for is what they call the aversion to the sacred, which is a person's inability to pray, to say the name of Jesus or Mary, to even look at the priest.

    TIME.com: Top Stories 2010

  • And typically what priests look for is what they call the aversion to the sacred, which is a person's inability to pray, to say the name of Jesus or Mary, to even look at the priest.

    TIME.com: Top Stories 2010

  • And typically what priests look for is what they call the aversion to the sacred, which is a person's inability to pray, to say the name of Jesus or Mary, to even look at the priest.

    TIME.com: Top Stories 2009

  • One of the best ways to punch through the bunker of risk-aversion is plunging into activities and passions off-the-clock, as Lingafelter did with climbing.

    Joe Robinson: Risk vs. Fear: Safe Is Sorry Joe Robinson 2010

  • One of the best ways to punch through the bunker of risk-aversion is plunging into activities and passions off-the-clock, as Lingafelter did with climbing.

    Joe Robinson: Risk vs. Fear: Safe Is Sorry Joe Robinson 2010

  • This would suggest that, since loss aversion is a psychological bias, the favourite-longshot bias may not necessarily be caused by psychological issues and may be due, for instance, to informational asymmetry.

    Putting the "Cuss" back in "Homo Economicus " 2009

  • The present work supports the idea that loss aversion may be a more universal bias, arising regardless of experience and culture and demonstrates that loss aversion is displayed even by those bettors regarded in the market as “smart money”.

    Putting the "Cuss" back in "Homo Economicus " 2009

  • Risk aversion is one of the most serious problems and largest cost of our human space flight enterprise.

    Remembering - NASA Watch 2009

  • But then again, in those weeks between the scouting combine and draft day, you just know the risk aversion is going to set in for teams looking at some pretty good players as alternatives in that range of picks 5-15.

    Red Line: 2009 draft should be deeper than 2008 2009

  • One of the best ways to punch through the bunker of risk-aversion is plunging into activities and passions off-the-clock, as Lingafelter did with climbing.

    Joe Robinson: Risk vs. Fear: Safe Is Sorry Joe Robinson 2010

Comments

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  • have a strong religious aversion

    March 10, 2011

  • I've averted many a-epiphany dealing with chickens and other flightless birds, my damned self.

    March 10, 2011

  • JM reckons a lie is aversion of the truth.

    August 26, 2011

  • The first GRE mock test score was so bad for me that my aversion for learning difficult vocabulary grew stronger.

    February 14, 2013