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
-
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
-
helping
present participle
noun
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help
plural
-
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.
-
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.
-
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)
-
(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
-
noun
-
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
-
have been helpingperfect progressive
-
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:
These search engines and chatbots could help you place a price on items you are trying to discard.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026
When that is truly the case, Uncle Sam’s tax rules can help as well.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
On the other there’s a career riddled with gaffes and allegedly immoral conduct that makes him an easy punching bag for the writers at “SNL” with the help of his late-night TV doppelganger Aziz Ansari.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026
Perhaps there are real use cases where this technology can help cost-burdened Americans solve their persistent health issues.
From Slate ● Oct. 8, 2026
Don Quixote kept thinking of the needy people in the world who could use his help.
From "Adventures of Don Quixote" by Argentina Palacios
It helps you draw boundaries without being held hostage to accusations of selfishness.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026
It also helps students understand nonverbal communication, which is key for overcoming the “uncertainty” with real-life interaction that Mr. Kessler rightly flags.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
When exercise stimulates PLIN1, it changes and releases ABHD5, which helps initiate fat breakdown.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026
Councillor Mike Ross, leader of Hull City Council, said: "It can be incredibly difficult for some people to get the healthy food they need. So, anything that helps tackle those barriers is really important."
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
One of the other women goes over and puts her hand on Iris’s shoulder, murmurs something to her, and then helps her stand and walks her out of the room.
From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy
Those alternative routes have helped keep regional crude exports near prewar levels.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
Kazarian worked on a project for Yerevan for Habitat for Humanity Armenia and helped build homes for charity, according to the local outlet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026
Those interactions helped stabilize the entire complex, strengthening the effect of the hybrid molecule beyond what the researchers had initially expected.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026
He said understanding mushrooms helped "join the dots" between different parts of the landscape and explain why species were found in particular habitats.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
Oteg and I helped Katy Logan get herself and her dogs on board.
From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell
“Not that many people want coffee table art books,” said Margit Novack, founding president of the National Association of Senior and Specialty Move Managers, a professional group helping older adults organize, declutter, downsize and relocate.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026
Vitamin D is essential for helping the body absorb calcium and maintain healthy bones.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026
Stand-up initiatives catered to helping people with mental health challenges include Comedy for Coping, taught by comic Dave Chawner; and Stand Up for Mental Health, led by counselor and comic David Granirer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026
Before Marc Lamont Hill was helping elevate the conversation on one of the country’s biggest podcasts, I watched him school Bill O’Reilly as a Fox contributor and Temple University professor.
From Salon ● Oct. 8, 2026
‘Can’t remember the last time you said that about spending a day helping your old man out.’
From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler
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.
