The phrase "avoid defining" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it when suggesting that someone should refrain from providing a definition or explanation of a term or concept.
Example: "In this discussion, we should focus on the implications of the theory rather than avoid defining its core principles."
Alternatives: "refrain from defining" or "steer clear of defining".
"The court will avoid defining whether Palestine is a state.
Those demanding more combat troops for Afghanistan also avoid defining the real costs.
In his recent address from the Oval Office, President Obama urged Americans to "reject discrimination" and to avoid defining the US war against extremism as "a war between America and Islam".
It will try to avoid defining talent either too broadly or too narrowly but simply take it to mean brainpower the ability to solve complex problems or invent new solutions.
The Met, in an effort to avoid defining the collection solely in terms of religion, chose an unusually long title for its spaces, "The Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia".
Many strategists in both parties say Mr. Bush may well emulate Mr. Clinton and avoid defining himself as a candidate, even if that means leaving to surrogates, for months to come, the task of responding to Democratic attacks, which have come early and with particular intensity in this election cycle.
Although the report was critical of Israeli policies, its tone was explanatory and it avoided defining political motivations on either side.
Ever since Ms Olsen rose from the typing-pool depths, the writers have conspicuously avoided defining her by her love life, and for that we are thankful.
But the details of his budget, like the photograph, become more ambiguous on closer inspection.Mr Brown carefully avoided defining the family, or expressing an explicit preference for one sort of family over another.
400 C.E ., whose Abhidharmakosa (1923-31) is a foundational psychological text for Northern Buddhists, avoided defining pleasure (sukha) in terms of current desire by defining it instead through desire for it arising after it has stopped (1984, p. 66).
The dictionary avoids defining what the qualities of a mother or father actually are.
