help (h?lp)v. helped, help·ing, helps v.tr.1. a. To give assistance to (someone); make it easier for (someone) to do something; aid: She helped me with my project. I helped her find her book.b. To give material or financial aid to: help the homeless.c. To wait on, as in a store or restaurant: Please help the customer in aisle 20.2. a. To contribute to the effectiveness or improvement of (something); improve or advance: tax breaks to help create jobs; new ways to help the environment; a remark that didn’t help the situation.b. To ease the pain or discomfort of; relieve: medication to help your cold.3. To refrain from; avoid or resist. Used with can or cannot: couldn’t help laughing.v.intr.1. To be of service; give assistance: I made a cake, and my friend helped.2. To be of use or provide relief: He has a bad back, and physical therapy hasn’t helped.n.1. The action of helping; assistance: Do you need help with that package?2. One that helps: You’ve been a great help. A food processor is a help to the serious cook.3. a. Archaic A person employed to help, especially a farm worker or domestic servant.b. Such employees considered as a group. Often used with the.Idioms: help (oneself) to1. To serve or provide oneself with: Help yourself to the cookies.2. Informal To take (something) without asking permission: The thief even helped himself to the spare change in the jar. help (someone) off To assist (someone) in taking off a piece of clothing: Help me off with these boots. help (someone) on To assist in putting on a piece of clothing: Help your grandmother on with her coat.[Middle English helpen, from Old English helpan.]help?er n.American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.help (h?lp) vb1. to assist or aid (someone to do something), esp by sharing the work, cost, or burden of something: he helped his friend to escape; she helped him climb out of the boat. 2. to alleviate the burden of (someone else) by giving assistance3. (tr) to assist (a person) to go in a specified direction: help the old lady up from the chair. 4. to promote or contribute to: to help the relief operations. 5. to cause improvement in (a situation, person, etc): crying won’t help. 6. (tr; preceded by can, could, etc; usually used with a negative) a. to avoid or refrain from: we can’t help wondering who he is. b. (usually foll by it) to prevent or be responsible for: I can’t help it if it rains. 7. to alleviate (an illness, etc)8. (tr) to serve (a customer): can I help you, madam?. 9. a. to serve (someone with food, etc) (usually in the phrase help oneself): may I help you to some more vegetables?; help yourself to peas. b. to provide (oneself with) without permission: he’s been helping himself to money out of the petty cash. 10. cannot help but to be unable to do anything else except: I cannot help but laugh. 11. help a person off with to assist a person in the removal of (clothes)12. help a person on with to assist a person in the putting on of (clothes)13. so help me a. on my honourb. no matter what: so help me, I’ll get revenge. n14. the act of helping, or being helped, or a person or thing that helps: she’s a great help. 15. a helping16. (Industrial Relations & HR Terms) a. a person hired for a job; employee, esp a farm worker or domestic servantb. (functioning as singular) several employees collectively17. a means of remedy: there’s no help for it. interjused to ask for assistance[Old English helpan; related to Old Norse hjalpa, Gothic hilpan, Old High German helfan] ?helpable adj ?helper nCollins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014help (h?lp) v.t. 1. to save; rescue; succor: Help me, I’m falling! 2. to contribute to; facilitate or promote: to help desegregation. 3. to be useful or profitable to: Your knowledge of languages will help you in your career. 4. to refrain from; avoid (usu. prec. by can or cannot): I can’t help teasing him about it. 5. to prevent or stop (usu. prec. by can or cannot): The disagreement could not be helped. 6. to make less unpleasant or monotonous; improve: A new rug might help the room. 7. to relieve (someone) in need, sickness, pain, or distress: to help the poor. 8. to alleviate; remedy: Nothing seems to help my headache. 9. to serve food or drink to: Help her to salad. 10. to serve or wait on (a customer), as in a store. v.i. 11. to give aid; be of service or advantage: Every little bit helps. 12. help out, to assist, as during a time of need. n. 13. the act of helping; aid or assistance; relief or succor. 14. a person or thing that helps: You were a tremendous help after the fire. 15. a hired helper; employee. 16. a body of such helpers. 17. a domestic servant or a farm laborer. 18. means of remedying, stopping, or preventing: There is no help for it now. 19. Older Use. helping. interj. 20. (used as an exclamation to call for assistance or to attract attention.) Idioms: 1. cannot or can’t help but, to be unable to refrain from or avoid; be obliged to: Still, you can’t help but admire her. 2. help oneself to, a. to serve oneself with: Help yourself to the cake. b. to take or use without asking permission; appropriate. [before 900; Middle English; Old English helpan, c. Old Saxon helpan, Old High German helfan, Old Norse hjalpa, Gothic hilpan] help?a?ble, adj. help?er, n. syn: help, aid, assist, succor agree in the idea of furnishing someone with something that is needed. help implies furnishing anything that furthers one’s efforts or satisfies one’s needs: I helped her plan the party. aid and assist, somewhat more formal, imply a furthering or seconding of another’s efforts. aid suggests an active helping; assist suggests less need and less help: to aid the poor; to assist a teacher in the classroom. To succor, still more formal and literary, is to give timely help and relief to someone in difficulty or distress: Succor him in his hour of need. usage: cannot help but has been condemned by some as the ungrammatical version of cannot help followed by the present participle: You cannot help admiring her. The idiom cannot help but is so common in all types of speech and writing, however, that it must be characterized as standard. Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.help1. ‘help’ as a transitive verbIf you help someone, you make something easier for them. When help has this meaning, it can be followed by an infinitive, with or without to. For example, you can say ‘I helped him to move the desk’ or ‘I helped him move the desk’. There is no difference in meaning.You can also use help as an intransitive verb, followed by an infinitive with or without to. If someone helps do something or helps to do it, they help other people to do it.If something helps do something or helps to do it, it makes it easier for that thing to be done.Be Careful!Don’t use an -ing form after help. Don’t say, for example, ‘I helped moving the desk’ or ‘I helped him moving the desk’.If you cannot help doing something, you are unable to prevent yourself from doing it.Be Careful!Don’t use a to-infinitive after cannot help. Don’t say, for example, ‘I couldn’t help to tease him a little’.