1. Unavailing; inefficacious; ineffectual.
1549. Coverdale, etc., Erasm. Par. Jas., 31 b. Of like sorte doubtles shall the profession of faith, whiche consisteth only in worde and worketh nothynge in dede, bee vnauayleable, but lyeth slugging like as it were deade.
a. 1600. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., VII. xi. § 2. Their proofs are unavailable to shew, that Scripture affordeth no evidence for the inequality of Pastors.
1616. J. Hayward, Sanct. Troub. Soul, I. v. (1620), 86. Where shall I hide?… To go forward it will bee intolerable,… to turne aside vnauailable.
1673. Dryden, Marr. à la Mode, IV. i. Your pity, madam, Is generous, but ’tis unavailable.
1746. Hervey, Medit., 81. What can they do in this Day of Visitation?… To fly, will be impossible; to justify themselves, impracticable; and now, to make any Supplications, unavailable.
1777. Potter, Æschylus, Prom. Chained, 12. To complain, or not complain, alike Is unavailable.
1808. Mem. Female Philos., II. 91. They displayed … the greatest valour and patriotism, but they were, alas, wholly unavailable in opposition to a superior force.
1850. Merivale, Rom. Emp., xiii. (1865), II. 120. He unburdened his feelings to Atticus in unavailable lamentations.
2. Not available; incapable of being used.
1855. Orr’s Circ. Sci., Inorg. Nat., 202. Storage in reservoirs … if the river supply is for any reason unavailable.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., III. lxx. II. 558. In the event of the man they chiefly favour proving ‘unavailable.’
