Emily Dickinson Lexicon

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. خَلََطَ, 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.

HE-MA-STAT'IC-AL, a. [Gr. αιμα, blood, and στατικος.]

Relating to the weight of the blood.

HEM'A-TIN, n. [Gr. αιμα, blood.]

The coloring principle of logwood, of a red color and bitterish taste. Chevreul.

HEM'A-TITE, n. [Gr. αιματιτης, from αιμα, blood.]

The name of two ores of iron, the red hematite, and the brown hematite. They are both of a fibrous structure, and the fibers, though sometimes nearly parallel, usually diverge, or even radiate from a center. They rarely occur amorphous, but almost always in concretions, rendiform, globular, botryoidal, stalactitic, &c. The red hematite is a variety of the red oxyd; its streak and powder are always nearly blood red. The brown hematite is a variety of the brown oxyd or hydrate of iron; its streak and powder are always of a brownish yellow. The red hematite is also called blood-stone. Cleaveland. Encyc.

HEM-A-TIT'IC, a.

Pertaining to hematite, or resembling it.

HEM'AT-O-CELE, n. [Gr. αιμα, blood, and κηλη, a tumor.]

A tumor filled with blood.

HEM'A-TOPE, n.

The sea-pye, a fowl of the grallic order, that feeds on shell-fish. Encyc.

HEM-A-TO'SINE, n.

One of the proximate principles of the blood.