Adjacent Words

Avail definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

AVA'IL, v.t. [L. valeo, to be strong or able, to profit, to be of force or authority; Eng. well. The primary sense is, to stretch or extend, whence strength, value.]
1. To profit one's self; to turn to advantage; followed by the pronouns, myself, thyself, himself, herself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves, with of before the thing used; as, let him avail himself of his license.
2. To assist or profit; to effect the object, or bring to a successful issue; as, what will skill avail us against numbers. Artifices will not avail the sinner in the day of judgment.
AVA'IL, v.i. To be of use, or advantage; to answer the purpose; as, strength without judgment will rarely avail. Generally, it signifies to have strength, force or efficacy sufficient to accomplish the object; as, the plea in bar must avail, that is, be sufficient to defeat the suit; this scheme will not avail; medicines will not avail to check the disease; suppositions, without proof, will not avail.
AVA'IL, n. Profit; advantage towards success; benefit; as, labor without economy is of little avail. It seems usually to convey the idea of efficacious aid or strength.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a means of serving; "of no avail"; "there's no help for it" [syn: avail, help, service] v
1: use to one's advantage; "He availed himself of the available resources"
2: be of use to, be useful to; "It will avail them to dispose of their booty"
3: take or use; "She helped herself to some of the office supplies" [syn: avail, help]

Merriam Webster's

I. verb Etymology: Middle English, Anglo-French availler, probably from a- (from Latin ad-) + valer, valoir to be of worth, from Latin val?re — more at wield Date: 14th century intransitive verb to be of use or advantage ; serve <our best efforts did not avail> transitive verb to produce or result in as a benefit or advantage ; gain <his efforts availed him nothing> II. noun Date: 15th century advantage toward attainment of a goal or purpose ; use <effort was of little avail>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v. & n. --v. 1 tr. help, benefit. 2 refl. (foll. by of) profit by; take advantage of. 3 intr. a provide help. b be of use, value, or profit. --n. (usu. in neg. or interrog. phrases) use, profit (of no avail; without avail; of what avail?). Etymology: ME f. obs. vail (v.) f. OF valoir be worth f. L valere

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Avail A*vail", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Availed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Availing.] [OE. availen, fr. F. ? (L. ad) + valoir to be worth, fr. L. valere to be strong, to be worth. See Valiant.] 1. To turn to the advantage of; to be of service to; to profit; to benefit; to help; as, artifices will not avail the sinner in the day of judgment. O, what avails me now that honor high ! --Milton. 2. To promote; to assist. [Obs.] --Pope. To avail one's self of, to make use of; take advantage of. Then shall they seek to avail themselves of names. --Milton. I have availed myself of the very first opportunity. --Dickens.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Avail A*vail", v. i. To be of use or advantage; to answer the purpose; to have strength, force, or efficacy sufficient to accomplish the object; as, the plea in bar must avail, that is, be sufficient to defeat the suit; this scheme will not avail; medicines will not avail to check the disease. ``What signs avail ?'' --Milton. Words avail very little with me, young man. --Sir W. Scott.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Avail A*vail", n. 1. Profit; advantage toward success; benefit; value; as, labor, without economy, is of little avail. The avail of a deathbed repentance. --Jer. Taylor. 2. pl. Proceeds; as, the avails of a sale by auction. The avails of their own industry. --Stoddard. Syn: Use; benefit; utility; profit; service.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Avail A*vail", v. t. & i. See Avale, v. [Obs.] --Spenser.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(avails, availing, availed) 1. If you do something to no avail or to little avail, what you do fails to achieve what you want. (WRITTEN) His efforts were to no avail... PHRASE: PHR after v, v-link PHR 2. If you avail yourself of an offer or an opportunity, you accept the offer or make use of the opportunity. (FORMAL) Guests should feel at liberty to avail themselves of your facilities. VERB: V pron-refl of n

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

a-val' shawah, ("to be equal," hence "to be enough," "to avail"): Used in the sense of "satisfy" (Es 5:13). Queen Esther's exceptional favor availed not to satisfy Haman, because of his insane jealousy of his rival Mordecai. ischuo, "to be strong.," translated also "prevail" (Re 12:8); with a negative signifies incompetence, e. g. the impossibility of redemptivc merit or power in an outward ceremony or act (Ga 5:6; 6:15 the King James Version): "neither circumcision availcth anything," contrasted with the efficacy of faith "in Christ Jesus." Used also to express the efficacy of prayer (Jas 5:16).

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. v. a. Benefit, profit, be of advantage to. II. v. n. Be of advantage, do good, be of use, answer the purpose. III. n. Profit, advantage, benefit, use, utility, service.

Moby Thesaurus

abet, account, advance, advantage, aid, answer, applicability, appositeness, appropriateness, assist, bail out, be equal to, be handy, be of use, bear, bear a hand, befriend, behalf, behoof, benefit, benison, bestead, blessing, boon, break no bones, comfort, convenience, do, do good, do it, do no harm, do the trick, doctor, ease, favor, fill, fill the bill, fitness, fulfill, gain, get by, give a boost, give a hand, give a lift, give good returns, give help, go around, good, hack it, help, hold, interest, just do, lend a hand, lend one aid, make the grade, meet, meet requirements, pass, pass muster, pay, pay off, percentage, point, proffer aid, profit, protect, qualify, rally, reach, reclaim, redeem, relevance, relieve, remedy, render assistance, rescue, restore, resuscitate, revive, satisfy, save, serve, serve the purpose, service, serviceability, set up, stand, stand up, stretch, succor, suffice, suitability, take in tow, take it, use, usefulness, value, welfare, well-being, work, work for, world of good, worth, yield a profit