Noun

(en noun)

(lb) Benefit; value, profit; advantage toward success.

*:

*:I shal take the aduenture sayd Balen that god wille ordeyne me / but the swerd ye shalle not haue at this tyme by the feythe of my body / ye shalle repente hit within short tyme sayd the damoysel/ For I wold haue the swerd more for your auaylle than for myne / for I am passyng heuy for your sake

*, III.1:

*:hardy Citizenssticke not to sacrifice their honours and consciences, as those of old, their lives, for their Countries availe and safety.

*{{quote-book, 1895, (Andrew Lang), A Monk of Fife

, passage=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.}}

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

:

*

*: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 , , " 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 .

*(Richard Henry Stoddard) (1825–1903)

*:the avails of their own industry

Effort; striving.

*{{quote-book, 1613, (Thomas Campion), chapter=Songs of Mourning, , year_published=1907, page=125, title= Poetical Works (in English) of Thomas Campion

, passage=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.}}

An advertising slot or package.

*{{quote-book, 1994, Barry L. Sherman, page=353, title= Telecommunications Management: Broadcasting/cable and the New Technologies, isbn=0070566984

, passage=The salesperson at an affiliate TV station might prepare an avail which offers two weeks of spots in early and late news

*{{quote-book, 2004, Walter S. Ciciora et al., page=123, title= Modern Cable Television Technology: Video, Voice, and Data Communications, isbn=1558608281

, passage=At an avail , the ad server plays out the MPEG-2 audio/video elementary streams.}}

A press avail.

:

Non-binding notice of availability for work.

(lb) A readily available stock of oil.

*{{quote-book, 1967, title= Interstate Compact on Oil and Gas (10th Extension), page=95

, passage=Total crude oil avails (production plus purchases) of even highly "self-sufficient" refiners are far greater than their reported refinery inputs.}}

Noun

(en-noun)

A force compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot; see torque.

A crowbar uses leverage to pry nails out of wood.

By extension, any influence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage.

Try using competitors’ prices for leverage in the negotiation.

(finance) The use of borrowed funds with a contractually determined return to increase the ability of a business to invest and earn an expected higher return, but usually at high risk.

Leverage is great until something goes wrong with your investments and you still have to pay your debts.

*

(business) The ability to earn very high returns when operating at high capacity utilization of a facility.

Their variable-cost-reducing investments have dramatically increased their leverage .

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=April 15 , author=Saj Chowdhury , title=Norwich 2 - 1 Nott'm Forest , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=The former Forest man, who passed a late fitness test, appeared to use Guy Moussi for leverage before nodding in David Fox's free-kick at the far post - his 22nd goal of the season.}}