"avert evil" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it when you want to express the idea of avoiding or preventing something bad or destructive from happening. For example, "The government put in place several measures to avert evil and protect its citizens."
Furthermore, in addition to its decorative function, during much of its history jewelry has also been worn as a sign of social rank forbidden by sumptuary laws to all but the ruling classes and as a talisman to avert evil and bring good luck.
A Shaiva might impersonate Shiva and carry a trident (trishula), denoting empire and the irresistible force of transcendental reality; wear a small lingam; carry a human skull, showing that he is beyond the terror inspired by the transitoriness of the world; or smear his body with apotropaic (supposed to avert evil) and consecratory ashes.
Critics have described it as "immaculate" and "a triumph of romanticism", which isn't bad for an album that features ukulele and has such an unapologetically erudite name (for those of you without a Classics degree, Lupercalia was the forerunner to Valentine's Day: an ancient pastoral festival intended to avert evil spirits and release fertility).
def: an object held to act as a charm, avert evil and bring good fortune.
In certain traditions clowning is an apotropaic (averting evil) ritual, a way of deflecting demonic attention from serious religious activities.
Most abortion proponents think that abortion averts evil.
He was also the patron of seafarers and fishermen and of others in need of good luck; his presence was thought to avert the evil eye.
The general's soldiers marched last, singing whatever they liked, which included ribaldry and scandal against their commander, probably as a way to avert the evil eye from him.
For example, some authorities suggest that the purpose of ritual cross-dressing a pracross-dressing aeen noted in the marriage ceremonies of practice India—is thatvert thasevil eye.
Often deformed, dwarfed, or crippled, fools may have been kept for luck as well as for amusement, in the belief that deformity can avert the evil eye and that abusive raillery can transfer ill luck from the abused to the abuser.
