Avail

Pronunciation

• IPA: /əˈveɪl/
• Rhymes: -eɪl

Origin

From Middle English vailen ("to be of use"), from Old French valoir ("to be worth"), from Latin valeo ("to be strong").

Full definition of avail

Verb

1. (transitive, often reflexive) To turn to the advantage of.I availed myself of the opportunity.
2. (transitive) To be of service to.Artifices will not avail the sinner in the day of judgment.
3. (transitive) To promote; to assist.
4. (intransitive) To be of use or advantage; to answer or serve the purpose; to have strength, force, or efficacy sufficient to accomplish the object.The plea in court must avail.''This scheme will not avail.Medicines will not avail to halt the disease.
• Sir Walter ScottWords avail very little with me, young man.
5. (India, Africa, elsewhere proscribed) To provide; to make available.
• With this initiative, Valucard becomes an open system that is not limited to point of sale (POS) transactions, but now avails cash to its holders in various locations nationwide.

Antonyms

• disavail

Derived terms

• available
• disavail

Related terms

Noun

1. (obsolete) Benefit; value, profit; advantage toward success. 15th-19th c.
• 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book I:For I wold haue the swerd more for your auaylle than for myne, for I am passyng heuy for your sake.
• Jeremy Taylorthe avail of a deathbed repentance
• So this friar, unworthy as he was of his holy calling, had me at an avail on every side, nor do I yet see what I could do but obey him, as I did.
2. Effect in achieving a goal or aim; purpose, use (now usually in negative constructions). from 15th c.I tried fixing it, to no avail.Labor, without economy, is of little avail.
3. (now only US) Proceeds; profits from business transactions. from 15th c.
• Stoddardthe avails of their own industry
4. (obsolete, poetic) Effort; striving.
• And ev'n now, though he breathless lies, his sails
  Are struggling with the winds, for our avails
  T'explore a passage hid from human tract,
  Will fame him in the enterprise or fact.
5. (television, advertising) An advertising slot or package.
• The salesperson at an affiliate TV station might prepare an avail which offers two weeks of spots in early and late news ...
• At an avail, the ad server plays out the MPEG-2 audio/video elementary streams.
6. (US, politics, journalism) A press avail.While holding an avail yesterday, the candidate lashed out at critics.
7. (British, acting) Non-binding notice of availability for work.
8. (oil industry) A readily available stock of oil.
• Total crude oil avails (production plus purchases) of even highly "self-sufficient" refiners are far greater than their reported refinery inputs.

Usage notes

(success or benefit) Very often encountered in negative phrases, such as of or to no or little avail.