help oneself

Idioms  

1. Make an effort on one's own behalf. Shakespeare used this expression in 2 Henry IV (3:2): “She is old, and cannot help herself,” and it also appears in the old proverb, God (or heaven ) helps those who help themselves . [First half of 1500s] Also see can't help .

2. Serve oneself, as in The food's in the kitchen; just help yourself . When it takes an object this phrase is put as help oneself to , as in I helped myself to more meat . It also is used as a euphemism for stealing, as in She simply helped herself to the hotel towels and left . The first usage dates from the late 1600s; the second, a colloquialism, from the mid-1800s.

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Example Sentences

Would it be legal help oneself unilaterally to food on display at 10:59 p.m. in a pizzeria that closed at 11 p.m.?

From Slate • Jun. 21, 2023

Altogether it was a difficult thing to ascertain or to move the will of the gods, and one must help oneself as best one could.

From The Greek View of Life by Dickinson, G. Lowes (Goldsworthy Lowes)

Well, you don't like them; but, after all, it's the fashion, and one can't help oneself.

From Nobody by Warner, Susan

"You see," he answers:— To help oneself out through the world is a queer sort of business: one can not Keep, you know, quite altogether as pure as one can in the cloister.

From Froude's Essays in Literature and History With Introduction by Hilaire Belloc by Belloc, Hilaire

To Adelheid von Schorn at Weimar Dear and honored One, When one is at a loss what to say or write, well—one tries to help oneself with music.

From Letters of Franz Liszt -- Volume 2 from Rome to the End by Bache, Constance