avoid like the plague

avoid (someone or something) like the plague

To consciously stay away from someone or something. I didn't do my homework my last night, so I'm avoiding my teacher like the plague. My dog is terrified of cats and avoids them like the plague.
See also: avoid, like, plague
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

avoid someone or something like the plague

Fig. to ignore or keep away from someone or something totally. What's wrong with Bob? Everyone avoids him like the plague. I don't like opera. I avoid it like the plague.
See also: avoid, like, plague
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

avoid like the plague

Evade or elude at any cost, shun. For example, Since Bob was taken into police custody, his friends have been avoiding him and his family like the plague . This seemingly modern expression dates from the Latin of the early Middle Ages, when Saint Jerome (a.d. 345-420) wrote, "Avoid, as you would the plague, a clergyman who is also a man of business." The plague, a deadly infectious disease in his day, has been largely wiped out, but the term remains current.
See also: avoid, like, plague
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

avoid somebody/something like the ˈplague

(informal) avoid somebody/something completely: It was the sort of restaurant that I would normally have avoided like the plague.
A plague is an infectious disease that kills a lot of people.
See also: avoid, like, plague, somebody, something
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

avoid like the plague, to

To stay away from, assiduously shun. The scourge of western Europe on numerous occasions, the plague, although poorly understood, was known to be contagious even in the time of St. Jerome (a.d. 345– 420), who wrote, “Avoid, as you would the plague, a clergyman who is also a man of business.”
See also: avoid, like
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • avoid (someone or something) like the plague
  • avoid somebody/something like the plague
  • avoid someone/something like the plague
  • dog ate my homework
  • dog ate my homework, the
  • the dog ate my homework
  • terrify or an animal out of
  • ate
  • suck (someone or something) into (something)
  • suck into
References in periodicals archive
With no defensive squad numbers left available and the defender not liking the idea of wearing number seven or number 11 on Tyneside, he opted for the number some players avoid like the plague. It is the number first held in Newcastle''s Premier League years by cult hero keeper Tommy Wright.
New boy Mapou is playing it by numbers
I would like to provide a brief additional aspect to the raw material picture which the public should be aware of, and which economists avoid like the plague. It is not generally recognized that any real profit to a raw material producer at the first point of sale is for all practical purposes debt-free money that enters the economy--and stays there.
Parity price and farming
Als (whose works I shall in the future avoid like the plague) has so little sense of irony as to be unable to realize that his line "The victims of O'Hara...
LETTERS