without any benefit or result The boy pushed against the door to no avail - something heavy was holding it shut.
Usage notes: sometimes used in the phrase to little avail(having almost no benefit or result): Security forces tried to disperse the crowd, but to little avail.
Also, of little or no avail. Of no use or advantage, ineffective, as in All his shouting was to no avail; no one could hear him, or The life jacket was of little or no avail. This idiom uses avail in the sense of "advantage" or "assistance," a usage dating from the mid-1400s. Also see to little purpose.