Means avoiding something or someone to prevent trouble or inconvenience. The expression originated from nautical terminology, where “berth” referred to a location where a ship was moored. In a harbour, a berth is a spot allocated to each vessel. At sea, a berth is where a ship drops anchor. When a ship laid its anchor, it was said to be ‘at berth’. However, any vessel still moves with the wind and tide when anchored, limited only by the anchor rope’s length. Ships would need to leave a fair distance between themselves and other vessels so as to avoid a collision as they moved with the wind or tide, hence, giving other ships plenty of room when passing or dropping anchor prevents collisions.