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Help out   /hɛlp aʊt/   Listen
verb
Help  v. t.  (past & past part. helped; obs. past holp, obs. past part. holpen; pres. part. helping)  
1.
To furnish with strength or means for the successful performance of any action or the attainment of any object; to aid; to assist; as, to help a man in his work; to help one to remember; the following infinitive is commonly used without to; as, "Help me scale yon balcony."
2.
To furnish with the means of deliverance from trouble; as, to help one in distress; to help one out of prison. "God help, poor souls, how idly do they talk!"
3.
To furnish with relief, as in pain or disease; to be of avail against; sometimes with of before a word designating the pain or disease, and sometimes having such a word for the direct object. "To help him of his blindness." "The true calamus helps coughs."
4.
To change for the better; to remedy. "Cease to lament for what thou canst not help."
5.
To prevent; to hinder; as, the evil approaches, and who can help it?
6.
To forbear; to avoid. "I can not help remarking the resemblance betwixt him and our author."
7.
To wait upon, as the guests at table, by carving and passing food.
To help forward, to assist in advancing.
To help off, to help to go or pass away, as time; to assist in removing.
To help on, to forward; to promote by aid.
To help out, to aid, as in delivering from a difficulty, or to aid in completing a design or task. "The god of learning and of light Would want a god himself to help him out."
To help over, to enable to surmount; as, to help one over an obstacle.
To help to, to supply with; to furnish with; as, to help one to soup.
To help up, to help (one) to get up; to assist in rising, as after a fall, and the like. "A man is well holp up that trusts to you."
Synonyms: To aid; assist; succor; relieve; serve; support; sustain; befriend. To Help, Aid, Assist. These words all agree in the idea of affording relief or support to a person under difficulties. Help turns attention especially to the source of relief. If I fall into a pit, I call for help; and he who helps me out does it by an act of his own. Aid turns attention to the other side, and supposes coöperation on the part of him who is relieved; as, he aided me in getting out of the pit; I got out by the aid of a ladder which he brought. Assist has a primary reference to relief afforded by a person who "stands by" in order to relieve. It denotes both help and aid. Thus, we say of a person who is weak, I assisted him upstairs, or, he mounted the stairs by my assistance. When help is used as a noun, it points less distinctively and exclusively to the source of relief, or, in other words, agrees more closely with aid. Thus we say, I got out of a pit by the help of my friend.



Help  v. i.  To lend aid or assistance; to contribute strength or means; to avail or be of use; to assist. "A generous present helps to persuade, as well as an agreeable person."
To help out, to lend aid; to bring a supply.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Help out" Quotes from Famous Books



... about the persons of his drama with his reader, instead of leaving them to play out their part alone. This trait offends some of Thackeray's audience, to whom it seems like the manager's hand thrust into the box to help out the play of the puppets. They resent not "the damnable faces" of the actors, but the damnable sermonizing of the author, and exhort him to permit the play to begin. Thackeray frankly acknowledged his tendency to preach, as he called it. ...
— Literary and Social Essays • George William Curtis

... a grand wedding, you know, With no end to the fuss and parade, With sixteen fair bridesmaids to stand in a row, With sixteen young groomsmen to help out the show, One to stand by ...
— What a Young Woman Ought to Know • Mary Wood-Allen

... wandering from the point," he said at last. "What I know of the clergy generally has not taught me to rely upon them for any advice in a difficulty, or any help out of trouble. Once—in a moment of weakness and irresolution—I asked a celebrated preacher what suggestion he could make to a rich man, who, having no heirs, sought a means of disposing of his wealth to the best advantage for others after his ...
— The Treasure of Heaven - A Romance of Riches • Marie Corelli

... an English Bible in that Countrey.] Provisions falling short with me, tho Rice I thank God, I never wanted, and Monies also growing low; as well to help out a Meal as for Recreation, sometimes I went with an Angle to catch small Fish in the Brooks, the aforesaid Boy being with me. It chanced as I was Fishing, an old Man passed by, and seeing me, asked of my Boy, If I could read in a Book. He answered, Yes. The reason I ask, said ...
— An Historical Relation Of The Island Ceylon In The East Indies • Robert Knox

... risking injury to it. Within an hour of breakfast being finished enough snow had been thawed to give the horses half a bucket of water each. In each pail a couple of pounds of flour had been stirred to help out what nourishment could be obtained from the leaves, and from the small modicum of grass given to ...
— In The Heart Of The Rockies • G. A. Henty


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