obviating

Verb

obviate (third-person singular simple present obviates, present participle obviating, simple past and past participle obviated)

1. (transitive) To anticipate and prevent or bypass (something which would otherwise have been necessary or required); to render (something) unnecessary.
   • […] and in the kindest manner she now urged Fanny’s taking one for the cross and to keep for her sake, saying everything she could think of to obviate the scruples which were making Fanny start back at first with a look of horror at the proposal.1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter XXVI, in Mansfield Park: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC
2. (transitive) To avoid (a future problem or difficult situation).
   • A mild dose of a warm active aperient to obviate costiveness, or to produce two motions daily, is generally very beneficial.1826, Richard Reece, A Practical Dissertation on the Means of Obviating & Treating the Varieties of Costiveness, page 181

See all 4 meanings of obviate