help

[help]

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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR help ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used with object)

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.

to save; rescue; succor: Help me, I'm falling!

to make easier or less difficult; contribute to; facilitate: The exercise of restraint is certain to help the achievement of peace.

to be useful or profitable to: Her quick mind helped her career.

to refrain from; avoid (usually preceded by can or cannot): He can't help doing it.

to relieve or break the uniformity of: Small patches of bright color can help an otherwise dull interior.

to relieve (someone) in need, sickness, pain, or distress.

to remedy, stop, or prevent: Nothing will help my headache.

to serve food to at table (usually followed by to): Help her to salad.

to serve or wait on (a customer), as in a store.

verb (used without object)

to give aid; be of service or advantage: Every little bit helps.

noun

the act of helping; aid or assistance; relief or succor.

a person or thing that helps: She certainly is a help in an emergency.

a hired helper; employee.

a body of such helpers.

a domestic servant or a farm laborer.

means of remedying, stopping, or preventing: The thing is done, and there is no help for it now.

Older Use. helping(def 2).

interjection

(used as an exclamation to call for assistance or to attract attention.)

Verb Phrases

help out, to assist in an effort; be of aid to: Her relatives helped out when she became ill.

Idioms

cannot/can't help but, to be unable to refrain from or avoid; be obliged to: Still, you can't help but admire her.

help oneself to,

to serve oneself; take a portion of: Help yourself to the cake.
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.

Origin of help

before 900; Middle English helpen, Old English helpan; cognate with German helfen

Related formshelp·a·ble, adjectiveun·der·help, nounun·help·a·ble, adjectiveun·helped, adjectivewell-helped, adjective

Synonyms for help

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR help ON THESAURUS.COM

1. encourage, befriend; support, second, uphold, back, abet. 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. 3. further, promote, foster. 6. ameliorate. 7. alleviate, cure, heal. 12. support, backing.

Antonyms for help

3, 11. hinder. 7. afflict. 13. hindrance.

Usage note

21. Help but, in sentences like She's so clever you can't help but admire her, has been condemned by some as the ungrammatical version of cannot help admiring her, but the idiom is common in all kinds of speech and writing and can only be characterized as standard.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for help

advice, use, service, support, comfort, hand, benefit, cooperation, aid, guidance, worker, bolster, save, serve, encourage, cooperate, maintain, back, push, further

Examples from the Web for help

Contemporary Examples of help

That strategy has been used in some cases to help determine GMO policy.
Anti-Fluoriders Are The OG Anti-Vaxxers
Michael Schulson
July 27, 2016
In the end, the clarity that comes from moments of horror can help us recommit to deeper principles.
Why We Stand With Charlie Hebdo—And You Should Too
John Avlon
January 8, 2015
A Wall Street person should not be allowed to help oversee the Dodd-Frank reforms.
Antonio Weiss Is Not Part of the Problem
Steve Rattner
January 7, 2015
Finding the common bonds that help us realize that we have far more in common than that which separates us.
In 2015, Let’s Try for More Compassion
Gene Robinson
January 4, 2015
Many hold classes in their living rooms, asking students to help re-arrange and then later put back furniture.
Iran’s Becoming a Footloose Nation as Dance Lessons Spread
IranWire
January 2, 2015

Historical Examples of help

That you will take tea with us to-morrow evening, and help us do justice to them.
Brave and Bold
Horatio Alger
"I hear they do have dreadful times with help in New York," said Mrs. Bines.
The Spenders
Harry Leon Wilson
I had a warm regard for your father, and shall be glad to help your mother if there is any occasion.
Brave and Bold
Horatio Alger
What was quite as important, he seemed disposed to help him.
Brave and Bold
Horatio Alger
I have been thinking about that day, wondering what I could do to help you.
Ancient Man
Hendrik Willem van Loon

British Dictionary definitions for help

help

verb

to assist or aid (someone to do something), esp by sharing the work, cost, or burden of somethinghe helped his friend to escape; she helped him climb out of the boat

to alleviate the burden of (someone else) by giving assistance

(tr) to assist (a person) to go in a specified directionhelp the old lady up from the chair

to promote or contribute toto help the relief operations

to cause improvement in (a situation, person, etc)crying won't help

(tr; preceded by can, could, etc; usually used with a negative)

to avoid or refrain fromwe can't help wondering who he is
(usually foll by it)to prevent or be responsible forI can't help it if it rains

to alleviate (an illness, etc)

(tr) to serve (a customer)can I help you, madam?

(tr foll by to)

to serve (someone with food, etc) (usually in the phrase help oneself)may I help you to some more vegetables?; help yourself to peas
to provide (oneself with) without permissionhe's been helping himself to money out of the petty cash

cannot help but to be unable to do anything else exceptI cannot help but laugh

help a person off with to assist a person in the removal of (clothes)

help a person on with to assist a person in the putting on of (clothes)

so help me

on my honour
no matter whatso help me, I'll get revenge

noun

the act of helping, or being helped, or a person or thing that helpsshe's a great help

a helping

a person hired for a job; employee, esp a farm worker or domestic servant
(functioning as singular)several employees collectively

a means of remedythere's no help for it

interjection

used to ask for assistance

Word Origin for help

Old English helpan; related to Old Norse hjalpa, Gothic hilpan, Old High German helfan

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for help

Old English helpan (class III strong verb; past tense healp, past participle holpen) "help, support, succor; benefit, do good to; cure, amend," from Proto-Germanic *helpan (cf. Old Norse hjalpa, Old Frisian helpa, Middle Dutch and Dutch helpen, Old High German helfan, German helfen), from PIE root *kelb- "to help" (cf. Lithuanian selpiu "to support, help").

Recorded as a cry of distress from late 14c. Sense of "serve someone with food at table" (1680s) is translated from French servir "to help, stead, avail," and led to helping "portion of food." Related: Helped (c.1300). The Middle English past participle holpen survives in biblical and U.S. dialectal use.

Old English help (m.), helpe (f.) "assistance, succor;" see help (v.). Most Germanic languages also have the noun form, cf. Old Norse hjalp, Swedish hjälp, Old Frisian helpe, Dutch hulp, Old High German helfa, German Hilfe. Use of help as euphemism for "servant" is American English, 1640s, tied up in notions of class and race.

A domestic servant of American birth, and without negro blood in his or her veins ... is not a servant, but a 'help.' 'Help wanted,' is the common heading of advertisements in the North, when servants are required. [Chas. Mackay, "Life and Liberty in America," 1859].

Though help also meant "assistant, helper, supporter" in Middle English (c.1200).

Idioms and Phrases with help

help

In addition to the idioms beginning with help

helping hand
help oneself
help out

also see:

can't help but
every little bit helps
not if one can help it
so help me