Eschew

Eschew is a transitive verb (meaning it needs to act on a direct object to make sense) which means to avoid or to shun. When you eschew something you give it the brush-off. In the following example sentence, Rodney distances him form peanuts: "Since he was allergic to peanuts, Rodney eschewed them with abandon in favor of hazel nuts." Eschew, despite sounding very French in origin, is actually derived from the Middle English eschewen which in turn derived from the Germanic scheuchen. Scheuchen, coincidentally, means shy and is, indeed, a root of our word shy. So someone who is shy pushes something away?