help

[[t]hɛlp[/t]]

v. t.

1) to save; rescue; succor:

Help me, I'm falling![/ex]

2) to contribute to; facilitate or promote:

to help desegregation[/ex]

3) to be useful or profitable to:

Your knowledge of languages will help you in your career[/ex]

4) to refrain from; avoid (usu. prec. by can or cannot):

I can't help teasing him about it[/ex]

5) to prevent or stop (usu. prec. by can or cannot):

The disagreement could not be helped[/ex]

6) to make less unpleasant or monotonous; improve:

A new rug might help the room[/ex]

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

to help the poor[/ex]

8) to alleviate; remedy:

Nothing seems to help my headache[/ex]

9) to serve food or drink to:

Help her to salad[/ex]

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

11) to give aid; be of service or advantage:

Every little bit helps[/ex]

12) phv help out, to assist, as during a time of need

13) the act of helping; aid or assistance; relief or succor

14) a person or thing that helps:

You were a tremendous help after the fire[/ex]

15) a hired helper; employee

16) a body of such helpers

17) a domestic servant or a farm laborer

18) means of remedying, stopping, or preventing:

There is no help for it now[/ex]

19) sts Older Use.

helping

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

•

- cannot or can't help but help oneself to

Etymology: bef. 900; ME; OE helpan, c. OS helpan, OHG helfan, ON hjalpa, Go hilpan help′a•ble, adj. help′er, n. syn: help, aid, assist, succor agree in the idea of furnishing someone with something that is needed. help implies furnishing anything that furthers one's efforts or satisfies one's needs: I helped her plan the party. aid and assist, somewhat more formal, imply a furthering or seconding of another's efforts. aid suggests an active helping; assist suggests less need and less help: to aid the poor; to assist a teacher in the classroom. To succor, still more formal and literary, is to give timely help and relief to someone in difficulty or distress: Succor him in his hour of need. usage: cannot help but has been condemned by some as the ungrammatical version of cannot help followed by the present participle: You cannot help admiring her. The idiom cannot help but is so common in all types of speech and writing, however, that it must be characterized as standard.