The Collaborative International Dictionary
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.]
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.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.-
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.The true calamus helps coughs.
--Gerarde. -
To change for the better; to remedy.
Cease to lament for what thou canst not help.
--Shak. To prevent; to hinder; as, the evil approaches, and who can help it?
--Swift.-
To forbear; to avoid.
I can not help remarking the resemblance betwixt him and our author.
--Pope. -
To wait upon, as the guests at table, by carving and passing food.
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.
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.
Help \Help\, v. i. To lend aid or assistance; to contribute strength or means; to avail or be of use; to assist.
A generous present helps to persuade, as well as an
agreeable person.
--Garth.
To help out, to lend aid; to bring a supply.
Usage examples of "to help out".
Luanne Carrandine was a little surprised when Rex asked her to babysit, but after the usual heavy flirting, she agreed to help out.
And Bistem and Bogess have their infantry fairly well organized on the approaches to the city, given that we've had to tap each regiment for a labor battalion to help out Rus's engineers.
Drizzt shrugged as he walked away toward the mizzenmast to help out the crewman.
And cops were running from all over the neighborhood, too, to help out with this wild-dog situation.
I realized I was going to have to make more (gulp) and I wished that Anna and Mom could have been there to help out, and to see what a success my idea had been.
We keep it open, I've got commitments from the Highway Patrol and almost every sheriff's department in the state to help out with extra officers.
I believe someday the Rangers may be necessary to help out there as well.
I agreed to help out with this particular job because I care deeply about the protection of antiquities and because an increase in anti-foreign feeling here could affect my work and that of others.