prevail

English

Alternative forms

• prævail, prævaile, prævale (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English prevailen, from Old French prevaler, from Latin praevaleō (“be very able or more able, be superior, prevail”), from prae (“before”) + valeō (“be able or powerful”). Displaced native Old English rīcsian.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɹɪˈveɪl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪl
• Hyphenation: pre‧vail

Verb

prevail (third-person singular simple present prevails, present participle prevailing, simple past and past participle prevailed)

1. (intransitive) To be superior in strength, dominance, influence, or frequency; to have or gain the advantage over others; to have the upper hand; to outnumber others.

   Red colour prevails in the Canadian flag.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Exodus 17:11:

     And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

   • 2022 February 27, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 0-0 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Liverpool created a host of chances and had a Joel Matip goal ruled out for a foul and offside in an incident-packed game that went right down to the wire before Jurgen Klopp's side prevailed.

2. (intransitive) To triumph; to be victorious.
   • 2019 January 14, “Exploring the SCP Foundation: SCP-2935 - O, Death” (0:36 from the start), in The Exploring Series‎, archived from the original on 25 March 2023:

     There are a number of SCPs and tales that look at potential apocalypses, but rarely with such totality as SCP-2935, a parallel dimension in which death prevailed.

3. (intransitive) To be current, widespread, or predominant; to have currency or prevalence.

   In his day and age, such practices prevailed all over Europe.

4. (intransitive) To succeed in persuading or inducing.

   I prevailed on him to wait.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling:

     Jones began to be very importunate with the lady to unmask; and at length having prevailed, there appeared not Mrs Fitzpatrick, but the Lady Bellaston herself.

5. (transitive, obsolete) To avail.

Derived terms

Related terms

• prevalence
• prevalent

Translations

References

• “prevail”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “prevail”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• pervial