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
-
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)
-
(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
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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:
"My path really begins in that little church in Mondolfo in the Marche region, where, from the time I was a child, I would go with my mother to help clean that building," he said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026
Even so, as an acute observer of the American cultural scene, I can’t help remarking that we’ve stumbled into one of the stranger beauty moments in American history.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
It may seem confusing that exercise isn’t especially effective for losing weight but can help prevent regain.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026
Basically, they wanted just another cog in the machine to help clear a path to a third consecutive World Series championship.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
“And I’ll help you finish whatever you can’t.”
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
The newspaper To Vima hailed this "new wave" which "helps raise the country’s international profile".
From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026
Two weeks after the butyrate had been withdrawn, CD4+ T-cells were still producing elevated levels of IL-10, an important anti-inflammatory cytokine that helps control intestinal inflammation.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 21, 2026
It helps that the author of “The Wealth of Nations” was no economist in the present sense of the word.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
It helps if we can laugh about it.
From Salon ● Aug. 21, 2026
“And I guess it helps when your undercarriage is three feet off the ground,” she said, patting Dodger’s tummy.
From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz
It’s an approach that has helped it survive for decades.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
In the mouse experiments, yeast beta-glucan helped reverse immune memory problems that remained after weight loss.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026
Despite those tough experiences, the midfielder described how Italian head coach Roberto de Zerbi helped lift the mood at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after taking over in March.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026
The loss of local manufacturing jobs helped suppressed demand in places like St. Louis.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 22, 2026
Joan was wounded, but she successfully helped French troops to victory in May 1429.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
Multinational corporations are getting nearly $200 billion back in tariff refunds from the U.S. government, helping to turbocharge some companies’ earnings.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 22, 2026
After World War II, Federal Reserve officials wanted to stop helping the Treasury Department keep interest rates low, leading to a fierce struggle with the Truman White House.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026
Now researchers are teaching it to smell, with the aim of sniffing out potential health concerns and even helping restore people’s lost sense of smell.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
The researchers say the results support the idea that beneficial compounds made by gut microbes can effectively "train" the intestinal lining, helping it preserve immune tolerance over time.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 21, 2026
“We can’t even tell the other kids thank you for helping save the Academy,” Elliot said.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
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.
