help
Americanverb (used with object)
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helps,
present (3rd person singular)
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helped,
past participle, past
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helping
present participle
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to give or provide what is necessary to accomplish a task or satisfy a need; contribute strength or means to; render assistance to; cooperate effectively with; aid; assist.
He planned to help me with my work. Let me help you with those packages.
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to save; rescue; succor.
Help me, I'm falling!
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to make easier or less difficult; contribute to; facilitate.
The exercise of restraint is certain to help the achievement of peace.
- Antonyms:
- hinder
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to be useful or profitable to.
Her quick mind helped her career.
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to refrain from; avoid (usually preceded by can orcannot ).
He can't help doing it.
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to relieve or break the uniformity of.
Small patches of bright color can help an otherwise dull interior.
- Synonyms:
- ameliorate
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to relieve (someone) in need, sickness, pain, or distress.
- Antonyms:
- afflict
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to remedy, stop, or prevent.
Nothing will help my headache.
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to serve food to at table (usually followed byto ).
Help her to salad.
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to serve or wait on (a customer), as in a store.
verb (used without object)
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helps,
present (3rd person singular)
-
helped,
past participle, past
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helping
present participle
noun
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help
plural
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the act of helping; aid or assistance; relief or succor.
-
a person or thing that helps.
She certainly is a help in an emergency.
- Antonyms:
- hindrance
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a body of such helpers.
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a domestic servant or a farm laborer.
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means of remedying, stopping, or preventing.
The thing is done, and there is no help for it now.
-
Older Use. helping.
interjection
verb phrase
idioms
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help oneself to,
-
to serve oneself; take a portion of.
Help yourself to the cake.
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to take or use without asking permission; appropriate.
They helped themselves to the farmer's apples. Help yourself to any of the books we're giving away.
-
-
so help me, (used as a mild form of the oath “so help me God”) I am speaking the truth; on my honor.
That's exactly what happened, so help me.
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cannot / can't help but, to be unable to refrain from or avoid; be obliged to.
Still, you can't help but admire her.
verb
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to assist or aid (someone to do something), esp by sharing the work, cost, or burden of something
he helped his friend to escape
she helped him climb out of the boat
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to alleviate the burden of (someone else) by giving assistance
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(tr) to assist (a person) to go in a specified direction
help the old lady up from the chair
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to promote or contribute to
to help the relief operations
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to cause improvement in (a situation, person, etc)
crying won't help
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(tr; preceded by can, could, etc; usually used with a negative)
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to avoid or refrain from
we can't help wondering who he is
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(usually foll by it) to prevent or be responsible for
I can't help it if it rains
-
-
to alleviate (an illness, etc)
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(tr) to serve (a customer)
can I help you, madam?
-
-
to serve (someone with food, etc) (usually in the phrase help oneself )
may I help you to some more vegetables?
help yourself to peas
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to provide (oneself with) without permission
he's been helping himself to money out of the petty cash
-
-
to be unable to do anything else except
I cannot help but laugh
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to assist a person in the removal of (clothes)
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to assist a person in the putting on of (clothes)
-
-
on my honour
-
no matter what
so help me, I'll get revenge
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noun
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the act of helping, or being helped, or a person or thing that helps
she's a great help
-
a helping
-
-
a person hired for a job; employee, esp a farm worker or domestic servant
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(functioning as singular) several employees collectively
-
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a means of remedy
there's no help for it
interjection
Usage
Cannot/can't help but has been condemned by some as the ungrammatical version of cannot/can’t help followed by the present participle: You can’t help but admire her. You can’t help admiring her. However, the idiom Cannot/can't help but is so common in all types of speech and writing that it must be characterized as standard.
Synonym Usage
Help, aid, assist, succor agree in the idea of furnishing another with something needed, especially when the need comes at a particular time. Help implies furnishing anything that furthers one's efforts or relieves one's wants or necessities. Aid and assist, somewhat more formal, imply especially a furthering or seconding of another's efforts. Aid implies a more active helping; assist implies less need and less help. To succor, still more formal and literary, is to give timely help and relief in difficulty or distress: Succor him in his hour of need.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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helpernoun
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underhelpnoun
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helpableadjective
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unhelpableadjective
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unhelpedadjective
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well-helpedadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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helpsimple
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helpssimple
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have helpedperfect
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has helpedperfect
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am helpingprogressive
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are helpingprogressive
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is helpingprogressive
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have been helpingperfect progressive
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has been helpingperfect progressive
Past
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helpedsimple
-
had helpedperfect
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was helpingprogressive
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were helpingprogressive
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had been helpingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of help
First recorded before 900; Middle English helpen, Old English helpan; cognate with German helfen
Explanation
The verb help means to give aid or assistance to. You can help your friend organize a car wash at school by making posters and putting them up all over town. Help can also mean to serve food or drink––as in, "Help yourself!" But don't serve yourself too much or there won't be enough for a second helping. One last meaning for help is the people hired to provide domestic services in a home. A nanny, a housekeeper, a gardener are often referred to somewhat derisively as "the help," because their job is helping the family.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
After Báez hit his first homer, Marmol couldn’t help but notice the look on his face.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
Military helicopters backed by tractors on the ground hauled water Sunday to help firefighters tame Belgium's largest modern-day wildfire, which mushroomed in size since breaking out two days earlier in a hard-to-access nature reserve.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
As the peaches soften, periodically crush them against the side of the saucepan with the back of a wooden spoon or a potato masher to help release their juices.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
"Diane said to him, she held his hand, and said we will help you get through this," he added:
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
There’s something about the way she looks at me, the softness in her eyes, that makes me believe she genuinely wants to help me.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
Access to instant cash helps banks withstand runs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
A thick liquid known as synovial fluid also helps lubricate your knees, hips and shoulders.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 16, 2026
Matt Willis is a former Marin County public health officer who used to work at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as an epidemiologist and now helps model the health impacts of climate change.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
Although this response helps preserve that balance, maintaining it over long periods could have physiological effects.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 15, 2026
The idea is that the hay rolls will stop the soil from washing away as the worm poop helps the invisible good stuff grow back in the soil.
From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz
Such transfers have helped give independent refiners “a significant procurement cost advantage, which has also been a core means of survival for the industry for many years,” the article said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
Especially when I realized that what was in the bowl had begun as a five-item farmers market haul, helped along by a few things I already had at home.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
A surprise build in U.S. commercial crude inventories also helped keep oil futures in check last week.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 16, 2026
Those comparisons helped demonstrate that the La Brea fossils belonged to a distinct species of spadefoot toad rather than to an unusual individual of a known species.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 16, 2026
As usual, Jonah helped Dad with the grunt work — tearing stuff out and hammering stuff back in.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
Lead author and sport and exercise technology expert Dr. Cody Lindsay says the ankle is essential for maintaining balance while also helping propel the body forward.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 16, 2026
Monahan described the soldiers as "doing an utterly phenomenal job digging trenches and also helping us build fire breaks".
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
Weingart also sees maintaining healthy soil, with limited weed growth competing for water, as an important way of helping vines cope with extreme heat and drought.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
Manufacturing in support of the data-center business is helping to offset market conditions that are holding back other industrial sectors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
“Besides the books, this girl has been in the store dusting, arranging things, helping customers every time I’ve been there! She’s always asking me questions about the pieces: ‘What period is this ware?
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
