Bypass

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /ˈbaɪpæs/

Definitions

1. A road or path that goes around a town or blocked area ; a medical operation to create a new path for blood to flow around a blockage ; to deliberately go around a rule or standard procedure
2. An alternative route designed to avoid congestion or obstacles on the main path ; a surgical technique that forms a detour for blood circulation ; the act of evading a regulation or requirement by taking an indirect action
3. A road built to divert traffic from a busy or obstructed area ; an operation that reroutes blood supply past a clogged vessel ; to consciously avoid normal steps or controls in a system

Etymology: The verb "bypass" is built from two plain English parts: "by," meaning aside or past, and "pass," meaning to go across or beyond. Its earliest English traces are reconstructed from a past participle, "by-past" or "bipast," which suggests a verb "bypassen" existed in Middle English. The verb and noun it gave rise to describe going around something rather than through it, and that basic picture has stayed remarkably stable. The sense that surprises most readers is the medical one. A surgical bypass reroutes blood around a blocked artery or vein, so a word that once described a traveller slipping past an obstacle now describes a surgeon building a new channel for the heart. The road sense, a route that diverts traffic around a town, follows the same logic, and the extension to "bypassing" rules or procedures in a system grows out of it.

Synonyms: detour, diversion, circumvention, avoidance, skirt

Antonyms: confront, engage, approach, face, allow