different between avail vs bestead

English

Etymology

From Middle English availen (“to be of use”), from Old French a (“to”) + vail (from valoir (“to be worth”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??ve?l/
• Rhymes: -e?l

Verb

avail (third-person singular simple present avails, present participle availing, simple past and past participle availed)

1. (transitive, often reflexive) To turn to the advantage of.

2. (transitive) To be of service to.

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.
5. (India, Africa, elsewhere proscribed) To provide; to make available.

Antonyms

• disavail

Derived terms

• available
• disavail

Related terms

Translations

Noun

avail (plural avails)

1. Effect in achieving a goal or aim; purpose, use (now usually in negative constructions). [from 15^thc.]
   • Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead; you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill.

   • 2014, Paul Doyle, "Southampton hammer eight past hapless Sunderland in barmy encounter", The Guardian, 18 October:

     At half-time, Poyet replaced Wes Brown with Liam Bridcutt in the heart of defence and sent out the rest of the players to atone for their first-half mistakes. To no avail.

2. (now only US) Proceeds; profits from business transactions. [from 15^thc.]
   • 1862, Elijah Porter Barrows, The State And Slavery

     the avails of their own industry

3. (television, advertising) An advertising slot or package.
4. (US, politics, journalism) A press avail.

5. (Britain, acting) Non-binding notice of availability for work.
6. (oil industry) A readily available stock of oil.
7. (obsolete) Benefit; value, profit; advantage toward success. [15^th-19^thc.]
8. (obsolete, poetic) Effort; striving.

Usage notes

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

Translations

Anagrams

• Alavi, Alvia, Avila

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?d

Etymology 1

From be- +? stead (“to support, help”).

Alternative forms

• bested

Verb

bestead (third-person singular simple present besteads, present participle besteading, simple past besteaded, past participle bestead)

1. (transitive) To help, assist.
   • And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.
2. (transitive) To profit; benefit; serve; avail.
   • 1859, Southern literary messenger: Volume 28:

     With forty sous which remained, he went to a low gambling house, where fortune, or something surer to the skilful practitioner, so well besteaded him that he was able to clothe himself decently preparatory to entering Frascati's, the fashionable hell of Paris—a den of abomination early suppressed on the accession of Louis Philippe to the French throne.

Synonyms

• (help; assist): aid, lend a hand; See also Thesaurus:help
• (profit; benefit; serve; avail): bestand; See also Thesaurus:serve

Derived terms

• besteading

Etymology 2

From be- +? stead (“place”).

Verb

bestead (third-person singular simple present besteads, present participle besteading, simple past and past participle besteaded)

1. (transitive) To take the place of; replace.

Etymology 3

From be- + Old Norse staddr (“placed”), later assimilated to Etymology 1, above.

Alternative forms

• bested

Adjective

bestead (not comparable)

1. (archaic) Placed (in a given situation); beset.
2. (obsolete) Disposed mentally; affected.

   sorrowfully bested

3. (obsolete) Provided; furnished.

Anagrams

• beasted, bed teas, bed-teas, debates