HELP, v.t. A regular verb; the old past tense and participle holp and holpen being obsolete.

1. Aid; assistance; strength or means furnished toward promoting an object, or deliverance from difficulty or distress. Give us help from trouble; for vain is the help of man. Ps. lx.
2. That which gives assistance; he or that which contributes to advance a purpose. Virtue is a friend and a help to nature. South. God is a very present help in time of trouble. Ps. xlvi.
3. Remedy; relief. The evil is done; there is no help for it. There is no help for the man; his disease is incurable.
4. A hired man or woman; a servant. United States.

To lend aid; to contribute strength or means. A generous present helps to persuade, as well as an agreeable person. – Garth. To help out, to lend aid; to bring a supply.

1. To aid; to assist; to lend strength or means toward effecting a purpose; as, to help a man in his work; to help another in raising a building; to help one to pay his debts; to help the memory or the understanding.
2. To assist; to succor; to lend means of deliverance; as, to help one in distress; to help one out of prison.
3. To relieve; to cure, or to mitigate pain or disease. Help and ease them, but by no means bemoan them. – Locke. The true calamus helps a cough. – Gerard. Sometimes with of; as, to help one of blindness. – Shak.
4. To remedy; to change for the better. Cease to lament for what thou canst not help. – Shak.
5. To prevent; to hinder. The evil approaches, and who can help it?
6. To forbear; to avoid. I can not help remarking the resemblance between him and our author. – Pope. To help forward, to advance by assistance. To help on, to forward; to promote by aid. To help out, to aid in delivering from difficulty, or to aid in completing a design. 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 a difficulty. To help off, to remove by help; as, to help off time. [Unusual.] – Locke. To help to, to supply with; to furnish with. Whom they would help to a kingdom. – 1 Maccabees. Also, to present to at table; as, to help one to a glass of wine.

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 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.
5. Remedy; relief; as, there is no help for it.
6. 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.

7. A helper; one hired to help another; also, thew hole force of hired helpers in any business.
8. To change for the better; to remedy.
   
   

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

9. Specifically, a domestic servant, man or woman.
   
   
   [Local, U. S.]
10. To prevent; to hinder; as, the evil approaches, and who can help it?
    
    
    Swift.
11. To forbear; to avoid.
    
    

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

12. 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. -- 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 coöperation 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.