Emily Dickinson Lexicon

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.