Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - bypass

(bypasses, bypassing, bypassed) 1. If you bypass someone or something that you would normally have to get involved with, you ignore them, often because you want to achieve something more quickly. A growing number of employers are trying to bypass the unions altogether... Regulators worry that controls could easily be bypassed. = sidestep VERB: V n, V n 2. A bypass is a surgical operation performed on or near the heart, in which the flow of blood is redirected so that it does not flow through a part of the heart which is diseased or blocked. ...heart bypass surgery. N-COUNT: oft N n 3. If a surgeon bypasses a diseased artery or other part of the body, he or she performs an operation so that blood or other bodily fluids do not flow through it. Small veins are removed from the leg and used to bypass the blocked up stretch of coronary arteries. VERB: V n 4. A bypass is a main road which takes traffic around the edge of a town rather than through its centre. A new bypass around the city is being built. ...the Hereford bypass. N-COUNT: oft in names after n 5. If a road bypasses a place, it goes around it rather than through it. ...money for new roads to bypass cities. VERB: V n 6. If you bypass a place when you are travelling, you avoid going through it. The rebel forces simply bypassed Zwedru on their way further south. VERB: V n