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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For gardeners in warmer areas, fall planting avoids the stress of a hot summer without adequate root systems.—
Andy Wilcox,
Better Homes & Gardens,
6 Nov. 2025
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Axiom strictly avoids heavy chemical use as the necessary means to its end goal.—
Malana VanTyler,
USA Today,
6 Nov. 2025
Verb
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In it, his character evades deadly hunters by jumping out a hotel window and then rappelling down the side of a building while wearing barely a stitch.—
Jordan Moreau,
Variety,
6 Nov. 2025
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The rest of the song fails to answer these questions and evades reference to anything else internet-y, focusing instead on litigating receipts and affairs.—
Fran Hoepfner,
Vulture,
30 Oct. 2025
Verb
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From the earliest pioneering expeditions and nighttime escapes from bondage to the modern-day road trip, Americans are a people on the move – restless, ambitious and innovative.—
USA TODAY,
USA Today,
3 Nov. 2025
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Fringilla escapes her captors, weaker but no less determined, and rescues Istredd from his cell.—
Scott Meslow,
Vulture,
30 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Shuns.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shuns. Accessed 9 Nov. 2025.
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