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单词 help
释义

help

See also: Help and HELP
For help with Wiktionary, see Help:Contents.

English

Pronunciation

  • enPR: hĕlp, IPA(key): /hɛlp/
  • (Southern American English, AAVE, dated) enPR: hĕp, IPA(key): /hɛp/[1]
  • Rhymes: -ɛlp
  • Audio - 'to help' (UK)(file)
  • Audio (US)(file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English help, from Old English help (“help, aid, assistance, relief”), from Proto-Germanic *helpō (“help”), *hilpiz, *hulpiz, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱelb-, *ḱelp- (“to help”).

Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hälpe (“help”), West Frisian help (“help”), Dutch hulp (“help”), Low German Hülp (“help”), German Hilfe (“help, aid, assistance”), Danish hjælp (“help”), Swedish hjälp (“help”), Norwegian hjelp (“help”).

Noun

help (usually uncountable, plural helps)

  1. (uncountable) Action given to provide assistance; aid.
    I need some help with my homework.
  2. Something or someone which provides assistance with a task.
    He was a great help to me when I was moving house.
  3. Documentation provided with computer software, etc. and accessed using the computer.
    I can't find anything in the help about rotating an image.
  4. (countable) A study aid.
    • c. 2002, “Scripture Study Helps”, in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints‎:
      In 1979 the Church published a Latter-day Saint edition of the King James Version of the Bible in English. Included in this edition were numerous helps to make a study of the scriptures more meaningful and rewarding.
    I've printed out a list of math helps.
  5. (usually uncountable) One or more people employed to help in the maintenance of a house or the operation of a farm or enterprise.
    The help is coming round this morning to clean.
    Most of the hired help is seasonal, for the harvest.
  6. (uncountable) Correction of deficits, as by psychological counseling or medication or social support or remedial training.
    His suicide attempts were a cry for help.
    He really needs help in handling customer complaints.
    “He’s a real road-rager.” / “Yup, he really needs help, maybe anger management.”
Usage notes
  • The sense “people employed to help in the maintenance of a house” is usually an uncountable mass noun. A countable form — “a hired help”, “two hired helps” — is attested, but now less common. Helper could be used if no more specific noun is available.
Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:help.

Synonyms
  • (action given to provide assistance): aid, assistance
Derived terms
  • cry for help
  • help desk
  • helpful
  • helpless
  • helpline
  • helply
  • helpmate
  • helpmeet
  • helpsome
  • help vampire
  • home help
  • self-help
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English helpen, from Old English helpan (“to help, aid, assist, benefit, relieve, cure”), from Proto-West Germanic *helpan, Proto-Germanic *helpaną (“to help”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱelb-, *ḱelp- (“to help”).

Cognate with West Frisian helpe (“to help”), Dutch helpen (“to help”), Low German helpen, hölpen (“to help”), German helfen (“to help”), Danish hjælpe (“to help”), Norwegian hjelpe (“to help”), Lithuanian šelpti (“to help, support”).

Verb

help (third-person singular simple present helps, present participle helping, simple past helped or (archaic) holp, past participle helped or (archaic) holpen)

  1. (transitive) To provide assistance to (someone or something).
    • 2013 June 22, “Snakes and ladders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 76:
      Risk is everywhere. […] For each one there is a frighteningly precise measurement of just how likely it is to jump from the shadows and get you. “The Norm Chronicles” […] aims to help data-phobes find their way through this blizzard of risks.
    He helped his grandfather cook breakfast.
  2. (transitive) To assist (a person) in getting something, especially food or drink at table; used with to.
    It is polite to help your guests to food before serving yourself.
    Help yourself to whatever's in the fridge.
  3. (transitive) To contribute in some way to.
    The white paint on the walls helps make the room look brighter.
    If you want to get a job, it helps to have some prior experience.
  4. (intransitive) To provide assistance.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess‎:
      As soon as Julia returned with a constable, Timothy, who was on the point of exhaustion, prepared to give over to him gratefully. The newcomer turned out to be a powerful youngster, fully trained and eager to help, and he stripped off his tunic at once.
    • 2013 June 29, “A punch in the gut”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 72-3:
      Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.
    She was struggling with the groceries, so I offered to help.
    Please, help!
  5. (transitive) To avoid; to prevent; to refrain from; to restrain (oneself). Usually used in nonassertive contexts with can.
    We couldn’t help noticing that you were late.
    We couldn’t help but notice that you were late.
    She’s trying not to smile, but she can’t help herself.
    Can I help it if I'm so beautiful?
    Can I help it that I fell in love with you?
    Are they going to beat us? Not if I can help it!
    She never does more than she can help.
  6. (Hong Kong) To do something on the behalf of someone.[2]
    Can you help me buy some groceries?
    Underlying meaning is “Can you go do the groceries for me?”
Usage notes
  • Use 4 is often used in the imperative mood as a call for assistance.
  • In uses 1, 2, 3 and 4, this is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. It can also take the bare infinitive with no change in meaning.
  • In use 5, can't help is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing) or, with but, the bare infinitive.
  • For more information, see Appendix:English catenative verbs
Conjugation
Conjugation of help
infinitive(to) help
present tensepast tense
1st-person singular help helped, holp†
2nd-person singular help, helpest† helped, helpedst†, holp†
3rd-person singular helps, helpeth† helped, holp†
plural help
subjunctive help helped, holp†
imperative help —
participles helping helped, holpen†

†Archaic or obsolete.

Synonyms
  • (provide assistance to): aid, assist, come to the aid of, help out; See also Thesaurus:help
  • (contribute in some way to): contribute to
  • (provide assistance): assist; See also Thesaurus:assist
Derived terms
Terms derived from help (verb)
  • a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down
  • behelp
  • can't help
  • helper
  • helping
  • help oneself
  • help out
  • overhelp
  • unhelp
Translations

Interjection

help!

  1. A cry of distress or an urgent request for assistance
    — Take that, you scoundrel.
    — Help! Robin, help!
    (Robin Hood (1973))
Translations

References

  1. Hall, Joseph Sargent (March 2, 1942), “3. The Consonants”, in The Phonetics of Great Smoky Mountain Speech (American Speech: Reprints and Monographs; 4), New York: King's Crown Press, DOI:10.7312/hall93950, →ISBN, § 2, page 88.
  2. Tony T.N. Hung (2012), chapter 7, in Ee-Ling Low, Azirah Hashim, editors, English in Southeast Asia: Features, policy and language in use, John Benjamins Publishing Company, page 126: “In HKE, the implication is usually to do something on behalf of someone, and not just to assist someone in doing it. For example, when someone asks you “Can you help me wash the dishes?”, the expectation is that you will do it for (rather than with) that person.”

Anagrams

  • Pehl

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch helpen, from Middle Dutch helpen, from Old Dutch helpan, from Proto-West Germanic *helpan, from Proto-Germanic *helpaną.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɦɛlp/
  • Audio(file)

Verb

help (present help, present participle helpende, past participle gehelp)

  1. to help

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • Audio(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛlp

Verb

help

  1. first-person singular present indicative of helpen
  2. imperative of helpen

Esperanto

Etymology

From the bare root of helpi, following the model of English help! considered as internationally understood.

Interjection

help

  1. Help! (as a cry of distress)

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *helpu, from Proto-Germanic *helpō.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /xelp/, [heɫp]

Noun

help f

  1. help

Declension

Declension of help (strong ō-stem)
CaseSingularPlural
nominativehelphelpa, helpe
accusativehelpehelpa, helpe
genitivehelpehelpa
dativehelpehelpum

Descendants

  • Middle English: help
    • English: help
    • Scots: help

References

  • Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898), “help”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Old Norse

Verb

help

  1. first-person singular present indicative active of hjalpa

Welsh

Etymology

Borrowed from English help.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /hɛlp/

Noun

help m (uncountable, not mutable)

  1. help, aid
    Synonyms: cymorth, cynhorthwy

Derived terms

  • help llaw (“a helping hand”)
  • helpu (“to help”)

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian helpe, from Proto-Germanic *helpō.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /hɛlp/

Noun

help c (plural helpen, diminutive helpke)

  1. help, assistance, aid
    Synonyms: assistinsje, bystân

Further reading

  • “help (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English helpen, from Old English helpan, from Proto-West Germanic *helpan.

Verb

help

  1. to help
    • 1867, “CASTEALE CUDDE'S LAMENTATION”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 6:
      He zide hea'de help mee udh o' hoan
      He said he'd help me out of hand

References

  • Jacob Poole (1867), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, page 104
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