Emily Dickinson Lexicon

HE'LOT-ISM, n.

Slavery; the condition of the Helots, slaves in Sparta. Stephens.

HELP, n. [W. help.]

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.

HELP, v.i.

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.

HELP, v.t. [a regular verb; the old past tense and participle holp and holpen being obsolete. W. helpu; Sax. helpan, hylpan; G. helfen; D. helpen; Sw. hielpa; Dan. hielper; Goth. hilpan.]

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.

HELP'ED, pp.

Aided; assisted; relieved.

HELP'ER, n.

1. One that helps, aids or assists; an assistant; an auxiliary.
2. One that furnishes or administers a remedy. Compassion – is oftentimes a helper of evils. More.
3. One that supplies with any thing wanted; with to. A helper to a husband. Shak.
4. A supernumerary servant. Swift.

HELP'FUL, a.

1. That gives aid or assistance; that furnishes means of promoting an object; useful.
2. Wholesome; salutary; as, helpful medicines. Ralegh.

HELP'FUL-NESS, n.

Assistance; usefulness. Milton.

HELP'ING, ppr.

Assisting; aiding; supporting.

HELP'LESS, a.

1. Without help in one's self; destitute of the power or means to succor or relieve one's self. A person is rendered helpless by weakness, or want of means. An infant is helpless.
2. Destitute of support or assistance. How shall I then your helpless fame defend? Pope.
3. Admitting no help; irremediable. [Not used.] Spenser.
4. Unsupplied; destitute. Helpless of all that human wants require. [Not used.] Dryden.

HELP'LESS-LY, adv.

Without succor. Kid.

HELP'LESS-NESS, n.

Want of strength or ability; inability; want of means in one's self to obtain relief in trouble or to accomplish one's purposes or desires. It is the tendency of sickness to reduce our extravagant self-estimation, by exhibiting our solitary helplessness. Buckminster.

HELP'MATE, n.

An assistant; a helper.

HEL'TER-SKEL'TER, n.

Cant words denoting hurry and confusion. [Vulgar. Qu. L. hilariter and celeriter, or Ch. הלט, Ar. خَاَطَ, to mix.]

HELVE, n. [helv; Sax. helf; G. helm, a helve and a helm; probably from the root of hold.]

The handle of an ax or hatchet.

HELVE, v.t. [helv.]

To furnish with a helve, as an ax.

HELV'ED, pp.

Fitted with a helve.

HEL-VET'IC, a. [Sax. Hæfelden, the Helvetii. Qu. hill-men or high hill-men.]

Designating what pertains to the Helvetii, the inhabitants of the Alps, now Swisserland, or what pertains to the modern states and inhabitants of the Alpine regions; as, the Helvetic confederacy; Helvetic states.

HEL'VIN, n. [from Gr. ηλιος, the sun.]

A mineral of a yellowish color, occurring in regular tetrahedrons, with truncated angles. Cleaveland.

HELV'ING, ppr.

Furnishing with a helve, as an ax.

HEM, n. [Sax. hem; W. hem; Russ. kaima.]

1. The border of a garment, doubled and sewed to strengthen it and prevent the raveling of the threads.
2. Edge; border. Matth. ix.
3. A particular sound of the human voice, expressed by the word hem.

HEM, v.i. [D. hemmen.]

To make the sound expressed by the word hem.

HEM, v.t.

1. To form a hem or border; to fold and sew down the edge of cloth to strengthen it.
2. To border; to edge. All the skirt about / Was hemm'd with golden fringe. Spenser. To hem in, to inclose and confine; to surround; to environ. The troops were hemmed in by the enemy. Sometimes perhaps to hem about or round may be used in a like sense.

HEM'A-CHATE, n. [Gr. αιμα, blood, and αχατης, agate.]

A species of agate, of a blood color. Encyc.

HE-MA-DY-NAM-OM'E-TER, n. [Gr. αιμα, blood, and dynamometer, which see.]

A contrivance for ascertaining the pressure of the blood in the arteries.