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440 results for: Help
Dictionary Entries (20 more entries. View all »)
| Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) | Cite This Source |
help 
Audio Help [help] Pronunciation Key
—Related forms
Audio Help [help] Pronunciation Key –verb (used with object)
–verb (used without object)
–noun
–interjection
—Verb phrase
—Idioms
| 1. | 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. |
| 2. | to save; rescue; succor: Help me, I'm falling! |
| 3. | to make easier or less difficult; contribute to; facilitate: The exercise of restraint is certain to help the achievement of peace. |
| 4. | to be useful or profitable to: Her quick mind helped her career. |
| 5. | to refrain from; avoid (usually prec. by can or cannot): He can't help doing it. |
| 6. | to relieve or break the uniformity of: Small patches of bright color can help an otherwise dull interior. |
| 7. | to relieve (someone) in need, sickness, pain, or distress. |
| 8. | to remedy, stop, or prevent: Nothing will help my headache. |
| 9. | to serve food to at table (usually fol. by to): Help her to salad. |
| 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. |
| 12. | the act of helping; aid or assistance; relief or succor. |
| 13. | a person or thing that helps: She certainly is a help in an emergency. |
| 14. | a hired helper; employee. |
| 15. | a body of such helpers. |
| 16. | a domestic servant or a farm laborer. |
| 17. | means of remedying, stopping, or preventing: The thing is done, and there is no help for it now. |
| 18. | Older Use. helping (def. 2). |
| 19. | (used as an exclamation to call for assistance or to attract attention.) |
| 20. | help out, to assist in an effort; be of aid to: Her relatives helped out when she became ill. |
| 21. | cannot or can't help but, to be unable to refrain from or avoid; be obliged to: Still, you can't help but admire her. |
| 22. | help oneself to,
|
| 23. | 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. |
[Origin: bef. 900; ME helpen, OE helpan; c. G helfen]
] —Related forms
help·a·ble, adjective
—Synonyms 1. encourage, befriend; support, second, uphold, back, abet. Help, aid, assist, succor agree in the idea of furnishing another with something needed, esp. 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 esp. 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. 3. further, promote, foster. 6. ameliorate. 7. alleviate, cure, heal. 12. support, backing.
—Antonyms 3, 11. hinder. 7. afflict. 13. hindrance.
—Usage note 21. Help but, in sentences like She's so clever you can't help but admire her, has been condemned by some as the ungrammatical version of cannot help admiring her, but the idiom is common in all kinds of speech and writing and can only be characterized as standard.
| Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006. |
Thesaurus Entries (4 more entries. View all »)
| Synonym Collection v1.1 | Cite This Source | |
| Main Entry: | help | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective | |
| Synonyms: | accessory, advantageous, auspicious, auxiliary, beneficial, constructive, convenient, cooperative, corroborative, curative, helpful, helping, obliging, opportune, propitious, remedial, salutary, subsidiary, therapeutic, adminicular, alleviatory, promoting | |
| Source: | Synonym Collection v1.1 Copyright © 2008 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. | |
| Roget's II: The New Thesaurus | Cite This Source | |
| Main Entry: | help | |
| Part of Speech: | noun | |
| Definition: | The act or an instance of helping. | |
| Synonyms: | abetment, aid, assist, assistance, hand, relief, succor, support | |
| Source: | Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved. | |
| Synonym Collection v1.1 | Cite This Source | |
| Main Entry: | help | |
| Part of Speech: | noun | |
| Synonyms: | aid, assistance, backing, cooperation, cure, encouragement, recourse, relief, remedy, restorative, subsidy, subvention, succor, support, adminicle, coperation, coadjuvancy, facilitation | |
| Source: | Synonym Collection v1.1 Copyright © 2008 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. | |
Encyclopedia Articles (411 more entries. View all »)
| Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia | Cite This Source |
self-help group, nonprofessional organization formed by people with a common problem or situation, for the purpose of pooling resources, gathering information, and offering mutual support, services, or care. Self-help groups began to spread in the United States following World War II and proliferated rapidly in the 1960s and 70s. Among these groups are such organizations as Alcoholics Anonymous and those for the victims and families of victims of specific diseases, child abuse, suicide, and crime. Groups concerned with a shared situation include those for the elderly, single parents, and homosexuals. The definition of such groups sometimes includes social-advocacy organizations and halfway services (e.g., drug rehabilitation centers). Although self-help groups may draw on, or offer a bridge to, professional assistance, free services are usually provided by the members themselves through meetings, publications, the Internet, and individual contacts.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004, Columbia University Press.
Licensed from Columbia University Press
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