avail

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You are right in saying that in opposition to this Power science is of no avail--that it is 'a weapon of air.'

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Definitions (25)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. transitive verb To be of use or advantage to; help: Nothing could avail the dying patient.
  2. intransitive verb To be of use, value, or advantage; serve: Halfway measures will no longer avail.
  3. noun Use, benefit, or advantage: labored to no avail.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (13)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (4)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (4)

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Examples (50)

  • Her efforts being still of no avail, after striking at several on either side, she rushed at a big, burly-looking Turk who was coming headlong towards her, and, seizing him by his jacket, began belabouring his back and head with a fury which was likely to prove as effective as the shot of the enemy, from whom he was trying to escape, in sending him to enjoy the bliss of Paradise Shouts of laughter burst from her friends in the distance as they witnessed her exploit. —  The Three Commanders
  • I have you fast, and little will your sword avail you'; then followed loud blows against the wall Illustration: DON QUIXOTE'S BATTLE WITH THE WINE-SKINS Quick, quick! —  The Red Romance Book
  • Of what avail was the immortal declaration 'that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,' and 'that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men,' to the millions of the African race in this country who were ground down and degraded, and subjected to a slavery more intolerable and cruel than the world ever before knew? —  History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States
  • But this conventional denomination would not avail, and for two reasons: First, that rival modes of truth (physics against mathematics, rhetoric against music) would contest the title, and no such denomination would have a basis of any but a sort of courtesy or vicarious harmonious reality from the very first. —  The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1
  • His counsel was of no further avail, and he only brought odium on them; indeed, his advice had from first to last been misleading and ill-omened. —  A History of the Four Georges, Volume II (of 4)
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Used in the same contextWord Family

avail:   availed ·  availing
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. 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).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English availen, from Old French a- (for L. ad-) + valer, valoir, be of value or use, from Latin valere, to be strong, to be worth: see value.
  2. from ME.availe, from availen: see avail,v.
 

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/əˈveɪl/
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