The phrase "avert something" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing the act of preventing or avoiding something undesirable or harmful.
Example: "The government implemented new policies to avert a potential economic crisis."
Alternatives: "prevent something" or "avoid something".
"With president Falwell's bold leadership, we're going to avert something of that magnitude should evil like that ever come to this campus," Butler said.
"Everybody was in agreement about trying to avert something disastrous from happening," said Jumaane D. Williams, a city councilman from Brooklyn, who called top aides to Mr. Bloomberg on Thursday night.
"For the first time, we are not just averting something unpleasant, but we are bringing positive change," Mr. Samaras said in a televised address.
The WSJ highlights a speech by Jaime Caruana, general manager of the Bank for International Settlements, warning of the dangers of easy money and the need to raise rates now to avert … something or other.
The meaning of these isolated cases is entirely unclear, but Mr. Velasquez-Manoff follows the tenuous thread of possibility out to the horizon: Possibly, autism can be averted with something "as simple as a probiotic given to Mom" during pregnancy, he notes.
If you feel your eyes averting to something else in the room, catch yourself and focus back on your teacher.
These basic facts have been established for decades, and every President since George Bush senior has vowed to do something to avert catastrophe.
But you also want to be careful not to rule anything out, partly so that the GOP understands that it may face a grand fizzle, partly because it may be necessary to do something to avert default.
I have always thought that if I can forecast a military coup in Egypt or in any other country then so can the head of the secret police and he will do something to avert it (unless, of course, he is leading the coup himself).
The fuel rods stayed cool because Prime Minister Naoto Kan had ordered TEPCO to remain staffed to avert a total meltdown -- something that 50 brave workers in hazmat suits did by using seawater.
We urgently need to do – and I mean actually do – something radical to avert a global catastrophe.
