to avert · to prevent · to avoid · to refrain from

Every function should have comments describing its purpose in order to avoid confusion.

For some companies their treatment of their employees or clients at any given time could affect their share prices and so inevitably have a great influence on the company’s success or failure.

Jim was able to hold back his anger and avoid a fight.

On the client side, very time-consuming operations should run asynchronously so as to avoid freezing the browser. The best example is the operation of Ajax.

Salt helps to preserve food from decay.