ward off
verb- To parry, or turn aside. · He raised his arms to ward off the attack.
- To, while in possession of the ball, move the free hand or the hand and arm holding the butt end of the stick laterally into a defending player's body or stick.
- To avert or prevent. · He wore garlic to ward off vampires.
From the library
Her character will be fixed; and she will, at sixteen, be the most determined flirt that ever made herself and her family ridiculous;--a flirt, too, in the worst and meanest degree of flirtation; without any attraction beyond youth and a tolerable person; and, from the ignorance and emptiness of her mind, wholly unable to ward off any portion of that universal contempt which her rage for admiration will excite.
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