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Help   /hɛlp/   Listen
verb
Help  v. t.  (past & past part. helped; obs. past holp, obs. past part. holpen; pres. part. helping)  
1.
To furnish with strength or means for the successful performance of any action or the attainment of any object; to aid; to assist; as, to help a man in his work; to help one to remember; the following infinitive is commonly used without to; as, "Help me scale yon balcony."
2.
To furnish with the means of deliverance from trouble; as, to help one in distress; to help one out of prison. "God help, poor souls, how idly do they talk!"
3.
To furnish with relief, as in pain or disease; to be of avail against; sometimes with of before a word designating the pain or disease, and sometimes having such a word for the direct object. "To help him of his blindness." "The true calamus helps coughs."
4.
To change for the better; to remedy. "Cease to lament for what thou canst not help."
5.
To prevent; to hinder; as, the evil approaches, and who can help it?
6.
To forbear; to avoid. "I can not help remarking the resemblance betwixt him and our author."
7.
To wait upon, as the guests at table, by carving and passing food.
To help forward, to assist in advancing.
To help off, to help to go or pass away, as time; to assist in removing.
To help on, to forward; to promote by aid.
To help out, to aid, as in delivering from a difficulty, or to aid in completing a design or task. "The god of learning and of light Would want a god himself to help him out."
To help over, to enable to surmount; as, to help one over an obstacle.
To help to, to supply with; to furnish with; as, to help one to soup.
To help up, to help (one) to get up; to assist in rising, as after a fall, and the like. "A man is well holp up that trusts to you."
Synonyms: To aid; assist; succor; relieve; serve; support; sustain; befriend. To Help, Aid, Assist. These words all agree in the idea of affording relief or support to a person under difficulties. Help turns attention especially to the source of relief. If I fall into a pit, I call for help; and he who helps me out does it by an act of his own. Aid turns attention to the other side, and supposes coöperation on the part of him who is relieved; as, he aided me in getting out of the pit; I got out by the aid of a ladder which he brought. Assist has a primary reference to relief afforded by a person who "stands by" in order to relieve. It denotes both help and aid. Thus, we say of a person who is weak, I assisted him upstairs, or, he mounted the stairs by my assistance. When help is used as a noun, it points less distinctively and exclusively to the source of relief, or, in other words, agrees more closely with aid. Thus we say, I got out of a pit by the help of my friend.


Help  v. i.  To lend aid or assistance; to contribute strength or means; to avail or be of use; to assist. "A generous present helps to persuade, as well as an agreeable person."
To help out, to lend aid; to bring a supply.


noun
Help  n.  
1.
Strength or means furnished toward promoting an object, or deliverance from difficulty or distress; aid; ^; also, the person or thing furnishing the aid; as, he gave me a help of fifty dollars. "Give us help from trouble, for vain is the help of man." "God is... a very present help in trouble." "Virtue is a friend and a help to nature."
2.
Remedy; relief; as, there is no help for it.
3.
A helper; one hired to help another; also, thew hole force of hired helpers in any business.
4.
Specifically, a domestic servant, man or woman. (Local, U. S.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Help" Quotes from Famous Books



... complimentary notice for flattery, above all others, a thing abhorrent to our nature? But 'tis vain to argue. That fatal "yes" has been uttered, and no true knight goes back from his plighted word. There being no help, we devoutly commend our case to St. Columba, St. Joseph, and the archangel St. Michel, the patrons of our parish, and set to our task, determined to assume a wide margin, draw heavily on history, and season the whole with short anecdotes and glimpses of domestic life, calculated ...
— Picturesque Quebec • James MacPherson Le Moine
... having a "happy, Christian home" and doesn't cover up his Christianity as most of the official and wealthy class seem to do. He expects to have his daughters educated in America, one in medicine and one in home affairs, and to have help in a campaign for changing the character of the Chinese home—from these big aggregates of fifty people or so living together, married children, servants, etc., where he says the waste is enormous, to ...
— Letters from China and Japan • John Dewey
... door which he had unlocked, as already noted, and opening it dashed out into the corridor. Mark did not propose to facilitate his flight. He sprang from the bed and called out in a loud tone, "Help! Thieves!" ...
— Mark Mason's Victory • Horatio Alger
... Grey had taunted them with it, as betraying a sense of shame at adhering to their old colors, Peel was inclined to adopt for himself, as characteristic of his feelings and future objects; and perhaps he thought it might help to smooth the way for a junction with him of those who would flinch from proclaiming so decided a change in their opinions as would be implied by their becoming colleagues of one who still cherished the name of Tory. But they declined his offers; and consequently he was forced ...
— The Constitutional History of England From 1760 to 1860 • Charles Duke Yonge
... find out his secret. You pushed me into his company that I might find it out and help you." ...
— December Love • Robert Hichens


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