as in avoids
to get or keep away from (as a responsibility) through cleverness or trickery
just a ruse to shun the debt collectors
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Recent Examples of shuns
Vanya is a closeted gay man who shuns intimacy and Sonia is a neurotic spinster who feels unnoticed and unloved.
—
Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Oct. 2025
Laugh is the kind of rap mastery that shuns maximalism for pristine, unadorned poetics.
—Andre Gee, Rolling Stone, 29 Aug. 2025
Instead of a tale of entrapment or escape, Ruth is a story about how a woman full of longing can operate inside a collective that shuns the very notion of wanting.
—Hillary Kelly, The Atlantic, 20 Aug. 2025
Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Oct. 2025
Laugh is the kind of rap mastery that shuns maximalism for pristine, unadorned poetics.
—Andre Gee, Rolling Stone, 29 Aug. 2025
Instead of a tale of entrapment or escape, Ruth is a story about how a woman full of longing can operate inside a collective that shuns the very notion of wanting.
—Hillary Kelly, The Atlantic, 20 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shuns
Verb
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Early prototypes shown at CES were assembled rapidly for demonstration, but Lumus says the underlying architecture avoids exotic materials.—
Neetika Walter,
Interesting Engineering,
9 Jan. 2026
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Jérôme Sans, the exhibition’s curator, positioned the Cookie Factory as a site that deliberately avoids cultural isolation.—
Okla Jones,
Essence,
9 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Experts who spoke to Flow Space are hopeful that these new approvals will provide the necessary tools to treat a disease that evades treatment by constantly mutating.—
Helen Carefoot,
Flow Space,
16 Dec. 2025
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In the film, Sea-Based X-Band Radar detects a missile flying across the Pacific Ocean toward Chicago that later evades interception.—
Ryan Chan,
MSNBC Newsweek,
26 Nov. 2025
Verb
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These interactions influence how Earth’s atmosphere slowly escapes into space.—
Aamir Khollam,
Interesting Engineering,
13 Jan. 2026
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From classic domestic getaways to sunny Caribbean escapes—and even a European city—the list challenges the assumption that travel costs are destined to rise.—
Lauren Dana Ellman,
Travel + Leisure,
13 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Shuns.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shuns. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.
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