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.
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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.
-
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
-
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
-
(functioning as singular) several employees collectively
-
-
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
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has been helpingperfect progressive
Past
-
helpedsimple
-
had helpedperfect
-
was helpingprogressive
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were helpingprogressive
-
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:
Its ability to generate and regulate internal heat may also help explain how tyrannosaurs survived in colder regions that were inhospitable to many other reptiles.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026
“But, for sure, now we have a whole wave of small customers who no longer have that option available and would like to leverage ours. And we’re more than happy to help if we can.”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 20, 2026
Creating this within a new Department for Growth would simplify red tape and help small and medium-sized businesses compete and grow, she said.
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
We all had to help out to keep the lights on.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
Screaming won’t help, but she does it anyway, pounding on the door with both fists.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
At Volvo, Zellmer will face a steeper cost structure than the one that helps fuel Škoda’s profits.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
"But if you increase disorder too much, you also lose stability. Our framework can help pinpoint the level of disorder that helps the system achieve optimal stability."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026
It really helps his mental health and is an important part of his life.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 19, 2026
At ThredUp, AI helps sort the millions of pieces of clothing sent into warehouses, helping speed up operations and reduce costs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
Barred coloration helps this breed hide from predators.
From "Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer" by Kelly Jones
That difference helped rule out the possibility that geological processes at the fossil site had altered the chemical signatures in both animals in the same way.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026
That technology is what has helped SpaceX keep costs down and improve its launch cadence over the years.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 20, 2026
She chaired the Congressional Black Caucus and helped secure Juneteenth as a federal holiday.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
They’ve been a strong partner of the tenant protections that I helped pass and were a huge voice for charter reform, including some of the things that didn’t happen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2026
Mom had helped me study for it for the entire week with her infamous flash cards, but none of that mattered.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
Yusron was torn between helping the girl he was falling in love with, and the promise he had made to his mother.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
The way Huang is talking about AI is clearly appealing to the White House, which sees the investment flowing into AI data centers as helping the economy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
At ThredUp, AI helps sort the millions of pieces of clothing sent into warehouses, helping speed up operations and reduce costs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
For most of the last 15 years, goods prices usually declined each year, helping maintain low inflation.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 19, 2026
Instead, they portrayed Dr. Kane as selflessly helping a young girl rise from her sordid profession by providing a proper education—polishing his image as a kind of super-generous superhero.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
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.
