Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use avail in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun

Avail means to turn to the advantage of. Example: “I availed myself of the opportunity.”

Examples of avail by meaning

verbTo turn to the advantage of.

  • I availed myself of the opportunity.

verbTo be of service to.

  • Artifices will not avail the sinner in the day of judgment.

verbTo be of use or advantage; to answer or serve the purpose; to have strength, force, or efficacy sufficient to...

  • The plea in court must avail.
  • This scheme will not avail.
  • Medicines will not avail to halt the disease.

verbTo 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.2004 November 16, Nik Ogbulie, “Decongesting the Banking Floors”, in This Day, archived from the original on 22 Jan 2009

verbTo use or take advantage of (an opportunity or resource).

  • You can avail discounts on food.
  • Over 85.3% of all persons who have adopted this method of contraception availed this service from government facilities.2014, Shilpa Vishwas Date, Jyoti Rokade, Vidya Mule, Shreedher Dandapannavar, “Female sterilization failure: Review over a decade and its...

nounEffect in achieving a goal or aim; purpose, use (now usually in negative constructions).

  • I tried fixing it to no avail.
  • Labor, without economy, is of little avail.
  • To no avail.2014 October 18, Paul Doyle, “Southampton hammer eight past hapless Sunderland in barmy encounter”, in The Guardian

nounA press avail.

  • While holding an avail yesterday, the candidate lashed out at critics.

nounA 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.1967, Interstate Compact on Oil and Gas (10th Extension), page 95

More sentences with avail

  • The physicians let about a pint of his blood, but to no avail.From the entry let
  • They tried citronella to fend off the mosquitos, to no avail.From the entry fend off
  • Any use would probably be an availing of the protection afforded by the passport.From the entry availing
  • My kidnappers had bound me hand and foot so any attempt at escaping was of no avail.From the entry bind hand and foot
  • I keep taking the tablets, but to no avail.From the entry keep
  • Jones pitched out twice to no avail.From the entry pitch out
  • I'm availing myself of the opportunity.From the entry availing
  • Their assistance was of no avail.From the entry of no avail
  • Rhaenyra and Alicent tried to work it out on the remix, to no avail.2024 June 30, Chris Murphy, “House of the Dragon’s Ser Simon Strong Is “The Only Gentleman in an Ungentlemanly World””, in Vanity Fair. From the entry work it out on the remix
  • To no avail, as Mexico held on for a sensational win against the defending champions.2018 June 17, Barney Ronay, “Mexico’s Hirving Lozano stuns world champions Germany for brilliant win”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The…. From the entry to no avail
  • This to no avail, given that Ivan has been reduced to a quivering puddle of orange dumbdom.2011, Douglas Dunn/Cujo, The Cujo Cat Chronicles, page 28. From the entry dumbdom
  • Lou quickly tried to get the baby to release his trophy but to no avail.2010, Frances Gaddy Stegall, Rafter T Ranch, page 179. From the entry goo
  • In this situation Hitler availed himself of a time-honored device-the use of esoteric language.1975, Lucy S. Dawidowicz, The War Against the Jews 1933-1945. From the entry esoteric
  • But all this is of no avail: my typomania is boundless!1953, University of California Publications in Modern Philology, page 70. From the entry typomania
  • I felt that no words of condolence availed, and I let him lie there quietly.1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 36”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC. From the entry volubility
  • He preened the registers, computer entries but of no avail.2020, Rohit Pagare, After the Dark, page 124. From the entry preen
  • Host Chris Matthews ticked through a list of regions, hoping to jog the Libertarian Party candidate’s memories, but to no avail.2016 September 29, Josh Lederman, Patrick Mairs, “Brain freeze? Gary Johnson can’t name favorite world leader”, in PBS NewsHour…. From the entry weld
  • "That splatter-gun won't avail thee none, old man,” Bianca said.2011, Rodolphus, The Wolf Doth Grin, →ISBN. From the entry splatter-gun
  • In some cases, the sericulturists avail of credit facility and construct a pukka shed for the silk worms.2003, Man and Life. From the entry pukka
  • "There won't be a press avail," she explained briskly about Clinton's first stop at - where else - the Italian Market.1992 April 18, Craig R. McCoy, “A Campaign Juggernaut Jaunts Through Phila.”, in Philadelphia Inquirer, page A4. From the entry press avail
  • They redoubled their efforts to no avail.1984, John B. Keane, Man of the Triple Name, Brandon, →ISBN, page 6. From the entry tatarara
  • What avails it to make a shine in Greek if the next hour one does a barney in calculus.1947, Samuel Hopkins Adams, Banner by the Wayside. From the entry barney
  • "What could his sling, his throwing-stick, or his arrow avail him against such forces as have been loose to-night?1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC. From the entry throwing stick
  • While availing herself of Carneses' tea and one of their tea caddies, she might also have purchased and utilized one of their teapoys.2019, Nancy E. Davis, “Afong Moy Presents Chinese Objects for the Home”, in The Chinese Lady: Afong Moy in Early America, New York, N.Y.…. From the entry tea caddy
  • I suggested, to no avail, that WWF (nature) should sponsor a fluffy black-and-white wrestler called the Panda, tag-teamed with the Game Warden.2012, Paul Spencer Sochaczewski, An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles, →ISBN, page 171. From the entry tag-team
  • They avail themselves of multiple communicative platforms across the Internet: blogs, social networks, comments, discussion forums, private messages, shoutboxes, MP3 files, and videos.2007, Nancy K. Baym, The new shape of online community: The example of Swedish independent music fandom. From the entry shoutbox
  • His magic had availed him little.1984, Robert E[dward] Vardeman, Iron Tongue (Cenotaph Road; 4), New York, N.Y.: Ace Science Fiction Books, →ISBN, page 96. From the entry spiderlet

Meaning of avail

  1. verb To turn to the advantage of.
  2. verb To be of service to.
  3. verb To promote; to assist.

Full definition of avail

Questions about avail in a sentence

How do you use avail in a sentence?
Avail is used as a verb and noun. For example: “I availed myself of the opportunity.”
What is a short sentence with avail?
“To no avail.”
What does avail mean?
Avail means to turn to the advantage of.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: avail (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use avail in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/avail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.