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urpose; 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.…

sufficient power, force, or efficacy, for the object; effectual; valid; as, an available plea. [Obs.] Laws human are available by consent. Hooker.

The object of dislike or repugnance. Pain their aversion, pleasure their desire. Pope.

t or evade; to invalidate. Thus, in a replication, the plaintiff may deny the defendant's plea, or confess it, and avoid it by stating new matter. Blackstone.

Finery of a kind to please a child. [Obs.] "Painted babery." Sir P. Sidney.

The act of bantering; joking or jesting; humorous or good- humored raillery; pleasantry. Part banter, part affection. Tennyson.

A special plea constituting a sufficient answer to plaintiff's action.

A pleasure boat; a vessel or boat of state, elegantly furnished and decorated.

Counselor at law; a counsel admitted to plead at the bar, and undertake the public trial of causes, as distinguished from an attorney or solicitor. See Attorney. [Eng.]

Of humble birth; or low degree; lowly; mean. [Archaic] "A pleasant and base swain." Bacon.

Having the qualities which constitute beauty; pleasing to the sight or the mind. A circle is more beautiful than a square; a square is more beautiful than a parallelogram. Lord Kames.

An assemblage or graces or properties pleasing to the eye, the ear, the intellect, the æsthetic faculty, or the moral sense. Beauty consists of a certain composition of color and figure, causing delight in the beholder. Locke. The production of beauty by a multiplicity of symmetrical parts uniting in a consistent whole…

its achenes, which are armed with barbed awns, and adhere to clothing and fleeces with unpleasant tenacity.

One whose great pleasure it is to gratify his appetite; a glutton; an epicure.

At or during pleasure. For our English judges there never was . . . any bene placito as their tenure. F. Harrison.

ns is estimated and determined by their utility; also, the theory that the sensibility to pleasure and the recoil from pain are the only motives which influence human desires and actions, and that these are the sufficient explanation of ethical and jural conceptions.

To charm; to fascinate; to please to such a degree as to take away the power of resistance; to enchant. The charms of poetry our souls bewitch. Dryden.

One who takes pleasure in rearing or collecting rare or curious birds.

then bitter or bitter and then sweet; esp. sweet with a bitter after taste; hence (Fig.), pleasant but painful.

smoky flame. -- Bituminous limestone, a mineral of a brown or black color, emitting an unpleasant smell when rubbed. That of Dalmatia is so charged with bitumen that it may be cut like soap. -- Bituminous shale, an argillaceous shale impregnated with bitumen, often accompanying coal.