v. Obs.; also 4 avyle. [a. OF. avile-r (= mod. avilir), cogn. with Pr., Sp. avilar, It. avvilire, -are:—Romanic *advīlāre, f. L. ad to + vīlis cheap, worthless, base.]
1. trans. To make vile, defile, dishonor, debase.
1297. R. Glouc., 495. The bissopes … amansede all the, That avilede holi chirche.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1151. He þe vesselles avyled þat vayled in þe temple.
a. 1670. Hacket, Abp. Williams. Pinch it into an epitome, you mangle the meaning and avile the eloquence.
2. To humble, degrade, abase.
a. 1617. Hieron, Wks. (1634), II. 65. Dauid was exceedingly auiled and cast downe in himselfe.
1632. Sanderson, Serm., I. 304. To exalt the papacy … and to avile the secular powers.
3. To hold cheap or in small esteem, to depreciate.
1610. B. Jonson, Masques (1692), 356. Want makes us know the price of what we avile.
1656. Trapp, Comm. Acts xxv. 19. These cocks… know not the price of that pearl, and do therefore avile it.
4. To speak contemptuously of; to vilify.
1615. T. Adams, Lycanthr., 13. So easy is it to avile and revile, so hard to convince.
a. 1617. Hieron, Wks., 1634, II. 435. To curse him, that is, either to reuile him or to auile him.
