Definition

1. Noun:
   • The act of deliberately avoiding something or someone; keeping away from or preventing something from happening.
   • A statement that evades a question through cleverness or trickery.
   • The nonperformance of a distasteful duty, often through deceit or trickery.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • His constant dodging of his responsibilities led to his dismissal.
  • The politician's answer was a clever dodging of the main issue.
  • Tax dodging is a serious crime with severe penalties.

Advanced Usage

• "Artful dodging": skillful or clever avoidance.
  • The witness was a master of artful dodging, never giving a direct answer.
• "Dodging and weaving": literally, moving quickly to avoid something; figuratively, avoiding issues or responsibilities in a nimble, evasive manner.
  • The CEO spent the press conference dodging and weaving around questions about the company's finances.

Variants and Related Words

• Dodge (verb): to avoid something by a quick movement or shift; to evade a duty or question.
  • He managed to dodge the flying ball.
  • She tried to dodge the reporter's questions.
• Dodger (noun): a person who avoids something, especially duties or laws.
  • He was known as a tax dodger.

Synonyms

• Evasion: the act of avoiding something, especially a duty or question.
• Avoidance: the action of keeping away from or not doing something.
• Elusion: the act of escaping or avoiding, especially by cleverness.

Related Phrases

• To dodge a bullet: to narrowly avoid a serious problem or disaster.
  • Missing that flight was annoying, but we dodged a bullet because it had mechanical issues.
• To dodge the issue/question: to avoid addressing a specific point.
  • Stop dodging the question and give me a straight answer.

Noun

1. deliberately avoiding; keeping away from or preventing from happening
2. a statement that evades the question by cleverness or trickery
3. nonperformance of something distasteful (as by deceit or trickery) that you are supposed to do
   • his evasion of his clear duty was reprehensible
   • that escape from the consequences is possible but unattractive