*avail*

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Words avail very little with me, young man. Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Profit; advantage toward success; benefit; value; as, labor, without economy, is of little avail. [ 1913 Webster ]

The avail of a deathbed repentance. Jer. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. pl. Proceeds; as, the avails of a sale by auction. [ 1913 Webster ]

The avails of their own industry. Stoddard. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Use; benefit; utility; profit; service. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. & i. See Avale, v. [ Obs. ] Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Availabilities 1. The quality of being available; availableness. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The word is sometimes used derogatively in the sense of “mere availableness, ” or capability of success without regard to worthiness. [ 1913 Webster ]

He was . . . nominated for his availability. Lowell. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. That which is available. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Having sufficient power, force, or efficacy, for the object; effectual; valid; as, an available plea. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Laws human are available by consent. Hooker. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Such as one may avail one's self of; capable of being used for the accomplishment of a purpose; usable; profitable; advantageous; convertible into a resource; as, an available measure; an available candidate. [ 1913 Webster ]

Struggling to redeem, as he did, the available months and days out of so many that were unavailable. Carlyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

Having no available funds with which to pay the calls on new shares. H. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Competent power; validity; efficacy; as, the availableness of a title. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Quality of being available; capability of being used for the purpose intended. Sir M. Hale. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Profit; advantage. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ OF. par aval below; par through (L. per) + aval down; a- (L. ad) + val (L. vallis) a valley. Cf. Paramount. ] (Eng. Law) At the bottom; lowest. Cowell. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In feudal law, the tenant paravail is the lowest tenant of the fee, or he who is immediate tenant to one who holds over of another. Wharton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. travail; cf. Pr. trabalh, trebalh, toil, torment, torture; probably from LL. trepalium a place where criminals are tortured, instrument of torture. But the French word may be akin to L. trabs a beam, or have been influenced by a derivative from trabs (cf. Trave). Cf. Travel. ] 1. Labor with pain; severe toil or exertion. [ 1913 Webster ]

As everything of price, so this doth require travail. Hooker. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Parturition; labor; as, an easy travail. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ Cf. F. travail, a frame for confining a horse, or OF. travail beam, and E. trave, n. Cf. Travail, v. i. ] Same as Travois. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Travailed p. pr. & vb. n. Travailing. ] [ F. travailler, OF. traveillier, travaillier, to labor, toil, torment; cf. Pr. trebalhar to torment, agitate. See Travail, n. ] 1. To labor with pain; to toil. [ Archaic ] “Slothful persons which will not travail for their livings.” Latimer. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To suffer the pangs of childbirth; to be in labor. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To harass; to tire. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

As if all these troubles had not been sufficient to travail the realm, a great division fell among the nobility. Hayward. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Causing travail; laborious. [ Obs. ] Wyclif. -- Trav"ail*ous*ly, adv. [Obs.] Wyclif. [1913 Webster]

Ineffective in achieving the desired result; ineffectual; futile; of no use; useless; pointless. [ PJC ]