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help

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

See also: HELP and Help
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English

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Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English help, from Old English help (“help, aid, assistance, relief”), from Proto-Germanic *helpō (“help”), *hilpiz, *hulpiz, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱelb-, *ḱelp- (“to help”).

Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hälpe (“help”), West Frisian help (“help”), Dutch hulp (“help”), Low German Hülp (“help”), German Hilfe (“help, aid, assistance”), Danish hjælp (“help”), Swedish hjälp (“help”), Norwegian hjelp (“help”).

Noun

help (usually uncountable, plural helps)

  1. (uncountable) Action given to provide assistance; aid.
    I need some help with my homework.
  2. Something or someone which provides assistance with a task.
    He was a great help to me when I was moving house.
  3. (computing) Documentation provided with computer software that could be accessed using the computer.
    I can't find anything in the help about rotating an image.
  4. (countable) A study aid.
    I've printed out a list of math helps.
    • c. 2002, “Scripture Study Helps”, in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints‎:
      In 1979 the Church published a Latter-day Saint edition of the King James Version of the Bible in English. Included in this edition were numerous helps to make a study of the scriptures more meaningful and rewarding.
  5. (usually uncountable) One or more people employed to help in the maintenance of a house or the operation of a farm or enterprise.
    The help is coming round this morning to clean.
    Most of the hired help is seasonal, for the harvest.
  6. (uncountable) Correction of deficits, as by psychological counseling or medication or social support or remedial training.
    His suicide attempts were a cry for help.
    He really needs help in handling customer complaints.
    “He’s a real road-rager.” / “Yup, he really needs help, maybe anger management.”
Usage notes
  • The sense “people employed to help in the maintenance of a house” is usually an uncountable mass noun. A countable form — “a hired help”, “two hired helps” — is attested, but now less common. Helper could be used if no more specific noun is available.
Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:help.

Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Etymology 2

From Middle English helpen, from Old English helpan (“to help, aid, assist, benefit, relieve, cure”), from Proto-West Germanic *helpan, Proto-Germanic *helpaną (“to help”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱelb-, *ḱelp- (“to help”).

Cognate with West Frisian helpe (“to help”), Dutch helpen (“to help”), Low German helpen, hölpen (“to help”), German helfen (“to help”), Danish hjælpe (“to help”), Norwegian hjelpe (“to help”), Lithuanian šelpti (“to help, support”).

Verb

help (third-person singular simple present helps, present participle helping, simple past helped or (archaic) holp, past participle helped or (archaic) holpen)

  1. (transitive) To provide assistance to (someone or something).
    He helped his grandfather cook breakfast.
    • 2013 June 22, “Snakes and ladders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 76:
      Risk is everywhere. […] For each one there is a frighteningly precise measurement of just how likely it is to jump from the shadows and get you. “The Norm Chronicles” […] aims to help data-phobes find their way through this blizzard of risks.
  2. (transitive) To assist (a person) in getting something, especially food or drink at table; used with to.
    It is polite to help your guests to food before serving yourself.
    Help yourself to whatever's in the fridge.
  3. (transitive) To contribute in some way to.
    The white paint on the walls helps make the room look brighter.
    If you want to get a job, it helps to have some prior experience.
    I've already taken three pills, but they don't seem to help my headache.
  4. (intransitive) To provide assistance.
    She was struggling with the groceries, so I offered to help.
    Please, help!
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
      As soon as Julia returned with a constable, Timothy, who was on the point of exhaustion, prepared to give over to him gratefully. The newcomer turned out to be a powerful youngster, fully trained and eager to help, and he stripped off his tunic at once.
    • 2013 June 29, “A punch in the gut”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, pages 72–3:
      Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.
  5. (transitive) To avoid; to prevent; to refrain from; to restrain (oneself). Usually used in nonassertive contexts with can.
    We couldn’t help noticing that you were late.
    We couldn’t help but notice that you were late.
    She’s trying not to smile, but she can’t help herself.
    Can I help it if I'm so beautiful?
    Can I help it that I fell in love with you?
    Are they going to beat us? Not if I can help it!
    She never does more than she can help.
  6. (Hong Kong) To do something on the behalf of someone.[2]
    Can you help me buy some groceries?
    Underlying meaning is “Can you go do the groceries for me?”
Usage notes
Conjugation
More information infinitive, present tense ...
Conjugation of help
infinitive (to) help
present tense past tense
1st-person singular help helped, holp†
2nd-person singular help, helpest† helped, helpedst†, holp†
3rd-person singular helps, helpeth† helped, holp†
plural help
subjunctive help helped, holp†
imperative help —
participles helping helped, holpen†
Close

† Archaic or obsolete.

Synonyms
Derived terms
(Terms derived from help (verb)):
Translations

Interjection

help!

  1. A cry of distress or an urgent request for assistance
    — Take that, you scoundrel.
    — Help! Robin, help!
    (Robin Hood (1973))
  2. (Internet slang, text messaging) A way to signal uncontrollable laughter; implying the risk of dying of laughter and needing assistance.
    helpppp that's too funny, did she rlly say that?
Translations

References

  1. [1]
    Hall, Joseph Sargent (1942 March 2) “3. The Consonants”, in The Phonetics of Great Smoky Mountain Speech (American Speech: Reprints and Monographs; 4), New York: King's Crown Press, →DOI, →ISBN, § 2, page 88.
  2. [2]
    Tony T.N. Hung (2012) chapter 7, in Ee-Ling Low, Azirah Hashim, editors, English in Southeast Asia: Features, policy and language in use, John Benjamins Publishing Company, page 126: “In HKE, the implication is usually to do something on behalf of someone, and not just to assist someone in doing it. For example, when someone asks you “Can you help me wash the dishes?”, the expectation is that you will do it for (rather than with) that person.”

Anagrams

Afrikaans

Dutch

Esperanto

North Frisian

Old English

Old Norse

Welsh

West Frisian

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