The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 1 plus 4 plus 5 letter word GIVEN A WIDE BERTH
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
G
I
V
E
N
A
W
I
D
E
B
E
R
T
H
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Avoided" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case avoided = given a wide berth.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.