Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To be of use or advantage to; help: Nothing could avail the dying patient.
- v. To be of use, value, or advantage; serve: Halfway measures will no longer avail.
- n. Use, benefit, or advantage: labored to no avail.
- idiom. avail (oneself) of To make use of.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To have value or use; be of service or advantage; give profit: as, wealth avails little to a castaway.
- To have force or efficacy; serve for a purpose; give aid toward an end: as, his cries availed to bring relief.
- To take or draw advantage; make use or profit.
- To be for the advantage of; assist or profit: as, what will skill avail us against numbers?
- To promote; prosper; assist: said of things.
- To advantage; profit; give the benefit to: used reflexively, with of: as, he availed himself of the opportunity.
- n. Advantage, profit, or benefit, in a general sense; also, value or estimation.
- n. Efficacy for a purpose; advantage to an object or end: now used chiefly in negative phrases, or sentences of negative import: as, of little or no avail; I doubt whether it will be of much avail.
- n. plural Profits or proceeds: as, the avails of a sale by auction.
- n. Returns.
- See avale.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To turn to the advantage of
- v. transitive To be of service to.
- v. transitive To promote; to assist.
- v. intransitive To be of use or advantage; to answer or serve the purpose; to have strength, force, or efficacy sufficient to accomplish the object.
- v. India, Africa To provide.
- n. obsolete, poetic Effort; striving.
- n. television, advertising An advertising slot or package.
- n. US, politics, journalism A press avail.
- n. UK, acting Non-binding notice of availability for work.
- n. oil industry A readily available stock of oil.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To turn to the advantage of; to be of service to; to profit; to benefit; to help.
- v. obsolete To promote; to assist.
- v. To be of use or advantage; to answer the purpose; to have strength, force, or efficacy sufficient to accomplish the object
- n. Profit; advantage toward success; benefit; value.
- n. Proceeds.
- v. obsolete See avale, v.
WordNet 3.0
- v. take or use
- v. be of use to, be useful to
- n. a means of serving
- v. use to one's advantage
Etymologies
- From Middle English vailen ("to be of use"), from Old French valoir ("to be worth"), from Latin valeo ("to be strong"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English availen : a-, intensive pref. (from Latin ad-; see ad-) + Old French valoir, vail-, to be worth (from Latin valēre, to be strong; see wal- in Indo-European roots). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“You reported on the usage of the word avail as shorthand or shortspeak for availability.”
Simon & Schuster: The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time
“Writers in England who argue for contribution in money ask: "Of what avail is the presence of a few cruisers in Canadian waters?”
“Jane writes to her sister: Charles has received £30 for his share in the privateer, and expects £10 more; but of what avail is it to take prizes if he lays out the produce in presents to his sisters?”
“Of what avail is all that you have let me learn, all the Sanskrit and English and other things, an I am less able to help myself than the woman who grinds the corn for our daily bread?”
“During the meeting, the two officials agreed to assign a joint-team of specialists and technicians to draft a cooperation protocol enabling Yemen to avail from the Spanish experience in fisheries.”
“257 In the text he tells of the whole story beginning with the eunuch and the hundred dinars, the chest, etc.: but — “of no avail is a twice-told tale.””
“Luna tries to hunt desert rabbits, to no avail, which is good.”
“When his power ceases to avail, that is when a stronger than he appears upon the scene, he is himself liable to be despoiled and killed.”
Freedom In Service Six Essays on Matters Concerning Britain's Safety and Good Government
“I have you fast, and little will your sword avail you '; then followed loud blows against the wall.”
“Time and time again, I have heard from experts in the field willing to offer their expertise to the Government in developing a plan on how to move beyond the ABC collapse to ensure its devastating stronghold on the sector is never repeated, to no avail, which is why I successfully moved for an inquiry into the regulation of childcare in Australia.”
GreensBlog - the official blog of the Australian Greens Senators
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘avail’.
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...health, follow, condition, meeting, minister, beginning, chapter, information, language, remain, covered, respect and 2614 more...
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It's Totes Obvs
new abbrevs
dece, whatevs, totes, hilare, diff, cuz, prolly, mofo, jel, kthxbai, buds, adorbs and 8 more...
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The Wonderer
For better writing.
emulate, intangible, comprehensible, detest, feasible, ominous, tarnished, betrothed, eccentric, folley, interloper, jaded and 1 more...
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Bouncers
The words we might know but learners won't
avail, local, hospitality, guideline, foreign, tourist, e-mail
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Vocabulary Words
words to reference while writing something
cohesive, epitome, tempered, imply, prudent, sundry, sagest, agitation, giddy, disposition, inclination, gracious and 114 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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fifi
verbs Adj Adv noun
indulge, convene, solve, dissolve, prospect, prospective, allege, resolve, accountable, administration, amid, agenda and 407 more...
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Caesar
Bellum Gallicum
encroach, vanquish, bid, assail, avail, surmount, coerce, discomfit, rout, noteworthy, subjugate, governance and 22 more...
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wickedwitch's list
lll
alit, plinth, eclat, diaphanous, portico, nival, daedal, apse, fossa, pellet, avail, midge and 143 more...
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SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL A
abandon, abash, abate, abjure, ablution, abnegate, abominable, aboriginal, abortive, abrade, abridge, abrogate and 172 more...
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Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 more...
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NTDW1
template, modal, sublingual, tandem, polycentric, septuagenarian, token, irrevocable, denotive, augural, aberrant, phlebotomy and 1188 more...
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whitmanian
from the poetry and prose of walt whitman
celebrate, assume, loafe, grass, summer, distillation, atmosphere, undisguised, naked, mad, breath, loveroot and 291 more...
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NakedFringe's Words
masticate, chamber, orchid, mandolin, yellow, pomegranate, conundrum, paradox, gyrate, calamitous, opalescent, cacophony and 533 more...
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GRE
acrimony, verisimilitude, tenebrious, tenebrous, dishabille, unfettered, deplorable, woebegone, credulity, naïveté, mitigate, meliorate and 475 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for avail.

miae Avail, as in “totes avail” meaning “totally available.” Oct 4, 2011