Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

help       (hělp)  Pronunciation Key  v.   helped, help·ing, helps v.   tr. To give assistance to; aid: I helped her find the book. He helped me into my coat. To contribute to the furtherance of; promote. To give relief to: help the needy. To ease; relieve: medication to help your cold. To change for the better; improve: A fresh coat of paint will help a scarred old table. To refrain from; avoid or resist. Used with can or cannot: couldn't help laughing. To wait on, as in a store or restaurant. v.   intr. To be of service; give assistance. n.   The act or an instance of helping. Aid or assistance. Relief; remedy. One that helps: You've been a great help. A food processor is a help to the serious cook. A person employed to help, especially a farm worker or domestic servant. Such employees considered as a group. Often used with the. [Middle English helpen, from Old English helpan.] Synonyms: These verbs mean to contribute to the fulfillment of a need, the furtherance of an effort, or the achievement of a purpose or end. Help and aid, the most general, are frequently interchangeable: a medication that helps (or aids) the digestion. Help, however, sometimes conveys a stronger suggestion of effectual action: I'll help you move the piano. Assist usually implies making a secondary contribution or acting as a subordinate: Apprentices assisted the chef in preparing the banquet. Succor refers to going to the relief of one in want, difficulty, or distress: "Mr. Harding thought . . . of the worn-out, aged men he had succored" (Anthony Trollope). See Also Synonyms at improve. Usage Note: Many people commonly use help in the sense conveyed in the sentence Don't change it any more than you can help (that is, "any more than you have to"). Some grammarians condemn this usage on the grounds that help in this sense means "avoid" and therefore logically requires a negative. But the expression is a well-established idiom. See Usage Note at cannot.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
help 

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

help
noun
1.	the activity of contributing to the fulfillment of a need or furtherance of an effort or purpose; "he gave me an assist with the housework"; "could not walk without assistance"; "rescue party went to their aid"; "offered his help in unloading" [syn: aid]
2.	a person who contributes to the fulfillment of a need or furtherance of an effort or purpose; "my invaluable assistant"; "they hired additional help to finish the work" [syn: assistant]
3.	a resource; "visual aids in teaching" [syn: aid]
4.	a means of serving; "of no avail"; "there's no help for it" [syn: avail]
verb
1.	give help or assistance; be of service; "Everyone helped out during the earthquake"; "Can you help me carry this table?"; "She never helps around the house"
2.	improve the condition of; "These pills will help the patient"
3.	be of use; "This will help to prevent accidents"
4.	abstain from doing; always used with a negative; "I can't help myself--I have to smoke"; "She could not help watching the sad spectacle" [syn: help oneself]
5.	help to some food; help with food or drink; "I served him three times, and after that he helped himself" [syn: serve]
6.	contribute to the furtherance of; "This money will help the development of literacy in developing countries"
7.	take or use; "She helped herself to some of the office supplies" [syn: avail]
8.	improve; change for the better; "New slipcovers will help the old living room furniture"

American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms - Cite This Source - Share This

help

In addition to the idioms beginning with help, also see can't help but; every little bit helps; not if one can help it; so help me.

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing - Cite This Source - Share This

HELP
1. DEA. A Language for industrial robots.
2. (Help Est un Lisp Paresseux - Help Is a Lazy Lisp). A lazy version of Scheme with strictness annotations, by Thomas Schiex .

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Help

Help\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Helped(Obs. imp. Holp, p. p. Holpen; 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.

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.

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.

The true calamus helps coughs. --Gerarde.

4. To change for the better; to remedy.

Cease to lament for what thou canst not help. --Shak.

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

6. To forbear; to avoid.

I can not help remarking the resemblance betwixt him and our author. --Pope.

7. 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.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

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.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Help

Help\, n. [AS. help; akin to D. hulp, G. h["u]lfe, hilfe, Icel. hj[=a]lp, Sw. hjelp, Dan. hielp. See Help, v. t.]

1. Strength or means furnished toward promoting an object, or deliverance from difficulty or distress; aid; ^; also, the person or thing furnishing the aid; as, he gave me a help of fifty dollars.

Give us help from trouble, for vain is the help of man. --Ps. lx. 11.

God is . . . a very present help in trouble. --Ps. xlvi. 1.

Virtue is a friend and a help to nature. --South.

2. Remedy; relief; as, there is no help for it.

3. A helper; one hired to help another; also, thew hole force of hired helpers in any business.

4. Specifically, a domestic servant, man or woman. [Local, U. S.]

American Heritage Abbreviations Dictionary 3rd Edition - Cite This Source - Share This

HELP Health Education Library for People