avocate
verbEtymology Borrowed from Latin avoco, avocatus. Doublet of avoke.
1
Obsolete To call off or away; to withdraw; to transfer to another tribunal.
- Stage-playes and dancing avocate and with-hold men from Gods worſhip1632 (indicated as 1633), William Prynne, Histrio-mastix. The Players Scourge, or, Actors Tragædie, […], London: […] E[lizabeth] A[llde,] [Thomas Cotes, Augustine Matthews] and W[illiam] I[ones] for Michael Sparke, […], →OCLC, 1st part, folio 539, verso:
- for what is a scholar, but one who retireth his person, and avocateth his mind from other occupations and worldly entertainmenta. 1678 (date written), Isaac Barrow, “Sermon LIV”, in The Works of Dr. Isaac Barrow. […], volume III, London: A[braham] J[ohn] Valpy, […], published 1831, →OCLC, page 346: