SELF-HELP • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Self-help

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/sˈɛlfhˈɛlp/ Listen

noun

Self-help n.

The act of aiding one's self, without depending on the aid of others.

(Law) The right or fact of redressing or preventing wrongs by one's own action without recourse to legal proceedings, as in self-defense, distress, abatement of a nuisance, etc.

Developing one's capabilities or solving one's own problems, especially psychological problems, without the assistance of a professional, by independent study or by association with other individuals having similar interests.

adjective

Self-help adj. Of, pertaining to, or useful for the process of developing one's capabilities or solving one's problems; as, self-help books on writing for profit.

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Etymology of 'Self-help'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Self-help" Quotes from Famous Books

... to put him on the same basis as any other child. Make him do everything possible for himself. Insist upon his being independent; dressing himself as soon as he is able, buttoning his own shoes, and performing all the little self-help acts that the wise mother demands of all her children. Make no distinction in the treatment accorded him. Ask the same services, reward right actions and punish wrongdoing as impartially as if he was not deaf, only being sure that he clearly connects the ...

— What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to Know • John Dutton Wright

... story of how four lads in a fishing village in the North of Scotland, being left orphans by the drowning of their father, learned the great lesson of self-help. ...

— The New McGuffey Fourth Reader • William H. McGuffey

... use of the bow, and accustomed to consider sword-play and quarter-staff as a necessary part and parcel of education, and the pastime of every leisure hour. The "fiercest nation upon earth," as they were then called, and the freest also, each man of them fought for himself with the self-help and self-respect of a Yankee ranger, and once bidden to do his work, was trusted to carry it out by his own wit as best he could. In one word, he was ...

— The Junior Classics • Various

... than that kind of sapless Nationalism, astonishingly rare in Ireland under the circumstances, which is inclined to yield to the insidious temptation of setting the "eleemosynary benefits"—to use Mr. Walter Long's phrase[3]—derived from the British connection above the need for self-help and self-reliance. The real paradox is that any Irishmen, Unionist or Nationalist, should tolerate advisers who, however sincere and patriotic, avowedly regard Ireland as the parasite of Great Britain; ...

— The Framework of Home Rule • Erskine Childers

... the 'Torch,' published by some of his supporters, sums up the difference between him and Mr. Jenkins. 'Mr. Stephen's liberalism,' says the 'Torch,' 'is much nearer to radicalism than the liberalism of Mr. Jenkins. Mr. Stephen's liberalism is the liberalism of self-help, of individualism, of every form of conscious industry and energy. It is the only liberalism which has the smallest chance of success in Scotland. The liberalism of Mr. Jenkins is the liberalism of state aid, of self-abasement, of incapacity ...

— The Life of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, Bart., K.C.S.I. - A Judge of the High Court of Justice • Sir Leslie Stephen

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