Avail transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Availed ; present participle & verbal noun Availing .] [ Middle English availen , from F. ... (L. ad ) + valoir to be worth, from Latin 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. [ Obsolete] 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.

Avail intransitive verb 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.

Avail noun
1. Profit; advantage toward success; benefit; value; as, labor, without economy, is of little avail .

The avail of a deathbed repentance.
Jer. Taylor.

2. plural Proceeds; as, the avails of a sale by auction.

The avails of their own industry.
Stoddard.

Syn. -- Use; benefit; utility; profit; service.

Avail transitive verb & i. See Avale , v. [ Obsolete] Spenser.

Availability noun ; plural Availabilities
1. The quality of being available; availableness.

» The word is sometimes used derogatively in the sense of "mere availableness," or capability of success without regard to worthiness.

He was . . . nominated for his availability .
Lowell.

2. That which is available.

Available adjective
1. Having sufficient power, force, or efficacy, for the object; effectual; valid; as, an available plea. [ Obsolete]

Laws human are available by consent.
Hooker.

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.

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

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

Availableness noun
1. Competent power; validity; efficacy; as, the availableness of a title. [ Obsolete]

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

Availably adverb In an available manner; profitably; advantageously; efficaciously.

Availment noun Profit; advantage. [ Obsolete]

Avalanche noun [ French avalanche , from avaler to descend, to let down, from aval down, downward; ... (L. ad ) + val , Latin vallis , valley. See Valley .]
1. A large mass or body of snow and ice sliding swiftly down a mountain side, or falling down a precipice.

2. A fall of earth, rocks, etc., similar to that of an avalanche of snow or ice.

3. A sudden, great, or irresistible descent or influx of anything.

Avale transitive verb & i. [ French avaler to descend, to let down. See Avalanche .]
1. To cause to descend; to lower; to let fall; to doff. [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

2. To bring low; to abase. [ Obsolete] Sir H. Wotton.

3. (intransitive verb ) To descend; to fall; to dismount. [ Obsolete]

And from their sweaty courses did avale .
Spenser.

Avant noun [ For avant-guard . Confer Avaunt , Van .] The front of an army. [ Obsolete] See Van .

Avant-courier noun [ French, from avant before + courrier . See Avaunt , and Courier .] A person dispatched before another person or company, to give notice of his or their approach.

Avant-guard noun [ French avant before + English guard , French avant-garde . See Avaunt .] The van or advanced body of an army. See Vanguard .

Avarice (ăv"ȧ*rĭs) noun [ French avaritia , from avarus avaricious, probably from avēre to covet, from a root av to satiate one's self: confer Greek 'a`menai , 'a^sai , to satiate, Sanskrit av to satiate one's self, rejoice, protect.]
1. An excessive or inordinate desire of gain; greediness after wealth; covetousness; cupidity.

To desire money for its own sake, and in order to hoard it up, is avarice .
Beattie.

2. An inordinate desire for some supposed good.

All are taught an avarice of praise.
Goldsmith.

Avaricious adjective [ Confer French avaricieux .] Actuated by avarice; greedy of gain; immoderately desirous of accumulating property.

Syn. -- Greedy; stingy; rapacious; griping; sordid; close. -- Avaricious , Covetous , Parsimonious , Penurious , Miserly , Niggardly . The avaricious eagerly grasp after it at the expense of others, though not of necessity with a design to save, since a man may be covetous and yet a spendthrift. The penurious , parsimonious , and miserly save money by disgraceful self- denial, and the niggardly by meanness in their dealing with others. We speak of persons as covetous in getting, avaricious in retaining, parsimonious in expending, penurious or miserly in modes of living, niggardly in dispensing.

-- Av`a*ri"cious*ly , adverb -- Av`a*ri"cious*ness , noun

Avarous adjective [ Latin avarus .] Avaricious. [ Obsolete]

Avast interj. [ Corrupted from Dutch houd vast hold fast. See Hold , transitive verb , and Fast , adjective ] (Nautical) Cease; stop; stay. " Avast heaving." Totten.

Avatar noun [ Sanskrit avatâra descent; ava from + root tr to cross, pass over.]
1. (Hindoo Myth.) The descent of a deity to earth, and his incarnation as a man or an animal; -- chiefly associated with the incarnations of Vishnu.

2. Incarnation; manifestation as an object of worship or admiration.

Avaunce transitive verb & i. [ See Advance .] To advance; to profit. Chaucer.

Avaunt interj. [ French avant forward, from Latin ab + ante before. Confer Avant , Advance .] Begone; depart; -- a word of contempt or abhorrence, equivalent to the phrase "Get thee gone."

Avaunt transitive verb & i.
1. To advance; to move forward; to elevate. [ Obsolete] Spenser.

2. To depart; to move away. [ Obsolete] Coverdale.

Avaunt transitive verb & i. [ Old French avanter ; à (L. ad ) + vanter . See Vaunt .] To vaunt; to boast. [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

Avaunt noun A vaunt; to boast. [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

Avauntour noun [ Old French avanteur .] A boaster. [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

Ave noun [ Latin , hail.]
1. An ave Maria.

He repeated Aves and Credos.
Macaulay.

2. A reverential salutation.

Their loud applause and aves vehement.
Shak.

Ave Maria, Ave Mary [ From the first words of the Roman Catholic prayer to the Virgin Mary; Latin ave hail, Maria Mary.]
1. A salutation and prayer to the Virgin Mary, as mother of God; -- used in the Roman Catholic church.

To number Ave Maries on his beads.
Shak.

2. A particular time (as in Italy, at the ringing of the bells about half an hour after sunset, and also at early dawn), when the people repeat the Ave Maria.

Ave Maria ! blessed be the hour !
Byron.

Avel transitive verb [ Latin avellere .] To pull away. [ Obsolete]

Yet are not these parts avelled .
Sir T. Browne.

Avellane adjective [ Confer Italian avellana a filbert, from Latin Avella or Abella a city of Campania.] (Her.) In the form of four unhusked filberts; as, an avellane cross.

Avena noun [ Latin ] (Botany) A genus of grasses, including the common oat ( Avena sativa ); the oat grasses.

Avenaceous adjective [ Latin avenaceus , from avena oats.] Belonging to, or resembling, oats or the oat grasses.

Avenage noun [ French avenage , from Latin avena oats.] (Old Law) A quantity of oats paid by a tenant to a landlord in lieu of rent. Jacob.

Avenalin noun [ Latin avena eats.] (Chemistry) A crystalline globulin, contained in oat kernels, very similar in composition to excelsin, but different in reactions and crystalline form.

Avener noun [ Old French avenier , from aveine , avaine , avoine , oats, French avoine , Latin avena .] (Feud. Law) An officer of the king's stables whose duty it was to provide oats for the horses. [ Obsolete]

Avenge transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Avenged ; present participle & verbal noun Avenging ] [ Old French avengier ; Latin ad + vindicare to lay claim to, to avenge, revenge. See Vengeance .]
1. To take vengeance for; to exact satisfaction for by punishing the injuring party; to vindicate by inflicting pain or evil on a wrongdoer.

He will avenge the blood of his servants.
Deut. xxxii. 43.

Avenge , O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold.
Milton.

He had avenged himself on them by havoc such as England had never before seen.
Macaulay.

2. To treat revengefully; to wreak vengeance on. [ Obsolete]

Thy judgment in avenging thine enemies.
Bp. Hall.

Syn. -- To Avenge , Revenge . To avenge is to inflict punishment upon evil doers in behalf of ourselves, or others for whom we act; as, to avenge one's wrongs; to avenge the injuries of the suffering and innocent. It is to inflict pain for the sake of vindication, or retributive justice. To revenge is to inflict pain or injury for the indulgence of resentful and malicious feelings. The former may at times be a duty; the latter is one of the worst exhibitions of human character.

I avenge myself upon another, or I avenge another, or I avenge a wrong. I revenge only myself, and that upon another.
C. J. Smith.

Avenge intransitive verb To take vengeance. Levit. xix. 18.

Avenge noun Vengeance; revenge. [ Obsolete] Spenser.

Avengeance noun Vengeance. [ Obsolete]

Avengeful adjective Vengeful. [ Obsolete] Spenser.

Avengement noun The inflicting of retributive punishment; satisfaction taken. [ R.] Milton.

Avenger noun
1. One who avenges or vindicates; as, an avenger of blood.

2. One who takes vengeance. [ Obsolete] Milton.

Avengeress noun A female avenger. [ Obsolete] Spenser.

Avenious adjective [ Prefix a- + Latin vena a vein.] (Botany) Being without veins or nerves, as the leaves of certain plants.

Avenor noun See Avener . [ Obsolete]

Avens noun [ Old French avence .] (Botany) A plant of the genus Geum , esp. Geum urbanum , or herb bennet.

Aventail noun [ Old French esventail . Confer Ventail .] The movable front to a helmet; the ventail.

Aventine adjective Pertaining to Mons Aventinus , one of the seven hills on which Rome stood. Bryant.

Aventine noun A post of security or defense. [ Poetic]

Into the castle's tower,
The only Aventine that now is left him.
Beau. & Fl.

Aventre transitive verb To thrust forward (at a venture), as a spear. [ Obsolete] Spenser.

Aventure noun [ See Adventure , noun ]
1. Accident; chance; adventure. [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

2. (Old Law) A mischance causing a person's death without felony, as by drowning, or falling into the fire.

Aventurine noun [ French aventurine : confer Italian avventurino .]
1. A kind of glass, containing gold-colored spangles. It was produced in the first place by the accidental ( par aventure ) dropping of some brass filings into a pot of melted glass.

2. (Min.) A variety of translucent quartz, spangled throughout with scales of yellow mica.

Aventurine feldspar , a variety of oligoclase with internal firelike reflections due to the presence of minute crystals, probably of hematite; sunstone.

Avenue noun [ French avenue , from avenir to come to, Latin advenire . See Advene .]
1. A way or opening for entrance into a place; a passage by which a place may by reached; a way of approach or of exit. "The avenues leading to the city by land." Macaulay.

On every side were expanding new avenues of inquiry.
Milman.

2. The principal walk or approach to a house which is withdrawn from the road, especially, such approach bordered on each side by trees; any broad passageway thus bordered.

An avenue of tall elms and branching chestnuts.
W. Black.

3. A broad street; as, the Fifth Avenue in New York.