Help

Help Help (h[e^]lp), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Helped} (h[e^]lpt) (Obs. imp. {Holp} (h[=o]lp), p. p. {Holpen} (h[=o]l"p'n)); p. pr. & vb. n. {Helping}.] [AS. helpan; akin to OS. helpan, D. helpen, G. helfen, OHG. helfan, Icel. hj[=a]lpa, Sw. hjelpa, Dan. hielpe, Goth. hilpan; cf. Lith. szelpti, and Skr. klp to be fitting.] 1. To furnish with strength or means for the successful performance of any action or the attainment of any object; to aid; to assist; as, to help a man in his work; to help one to remember; -- the following infinitive is commonly used without to; as, ``Help me scale yon balcony.'' --Longfellow. [1913 Webster]

2. To furnish with the means of deliverance from trouble; as, to help one in distress; to help one out of prison. ``God help, poor souls, how idly do they talk!'' --Shak. [1913 Webster]

3. To furnish with relief, as in pain or disease; to be of avail against; -- sometimes with of before a word designating the pain or disease, and sometimes having such a word for the direct object. ``To help him of his blindness.'' --Shak. [1913 Webster]

The true calamus helps coughs. --Gerarde. [1913 Webster]

4. To change for the better; to remedy. [1913 Webster]

Cease to lament for what thou canst not help. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

5. To prevent; to hinder; as, the evil approaches, and who can help it? --Swift. [1913 Webster]

6. To forbear; to avoid. [1913 Webster]

I can not help remarking the resemblance betwixt him and our author. --Pope. [1913 Webster]

7. To wait upon, as the guests at table, by carving and passing food. [1913 Webster]

{To help forward}, to assist in advancing.

{To help off}, to help to go or pass away, as time; to assist in removing. --Locke.

{To help on}, to forward; to promote by aid.

{To help out}, to aid, as in delivering from a difficulty, or to aid in completing a design or task. [1913 Webster]

The god of learning and of light Would want a god himself to help him out. --Swift.

{To help over}, to enable to surmount; as, to help one over an obstacle.

{To help to}, to supply with; to furnish with; as, to help one to soup.

{To help up}, to help (one) to get up; to assist in rising, as after a fall, and the like. ``A man is well holp up that trusts to you.'' --Shak.

Syn: To aid; assist; succor; relieve; serve; support; sustain; befriend.

Usage: To {Help}, {Aid}, {Assist}. These words all agree in the idea of affording relief or support to a person under difficulties. Help turns attention especially to the source of relief. If I fall into a pit, I call for help; and he who helps me out does it by an act of his own. Aid turns attention to the other side, and supposes co["o]peration on the part of him who is relieved; as, he aided me in getting out of the pit; I got out by the aid of a ladder which he brought. Assist has a primary reference to relief afforded by a person who ``stands by'' in order to relieve. It denotes both help and aid. Thus, we say of a person who is weak, I assisted him upstairs, or, he mounted the stairs by my assistance. When help is used as a noun, it points less distinctively and exclusively to the source of relief, or, in other words, agrees more closely with aid. Thus we say, I got out of a pit by the help of my friend. [1913 Webster]