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Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
help (verb)
transitive verb
1.
to give assistance or support to - help a child with homework
2.
a) to make more pleasant or bearable - improve relieve bright curtains will help the room took an aspirin to help her headache
b) archaic - rescue save
3.
a) to be of use to - benefit
b) to further the advancement of - promote
4.
a) to change for the better
b) to refrain from - avoid we couldn't help laughing
c) to keep from occurring - prevent they couldn't help the accident
d) to restrain (oneself) from doing something - knew they shouldn't go but couldn't help themselves
5.
to serve with food or drink especially at a meal - told the guests to help themselves
6.
intransitive verb
to appropriate something for (oneself) - helped himself to the car keys
1.
give assistance or support - often used with out helps out with the housework
2.
to be of use or benefit improve
help (noun)
1.
- aid assistance
2.
a source of aid - printed helps to the memory C. S. Braden
3.
- remedy relief there was no help for it
4.
a) one who serves or assists another (as in housework) - helper
b) - employee help wanted often used collectively the hired help
Merriam-Webster Online Thesaurus
help (noun)
1.
an act or instance of helping
SYNONIMS:
abetment, aid, assist, assistance, backing, boost, hand, helping hand, leg up, lift, support
RELATED WORDS:
advancement, encouragement, facilitation, forwarding, furtherance, furthering, nurturance; benefaction, patronage, promotion, sponsorship; advice, care, counsel, guidance, mentoring; attendance, attention, hand-holding, service; beneficence, charity, favor, kindness, philanthropy; assuagement, palliation, relief, succor
NEAR ANTONYMS:
constraint, frustration, inhibition, interference, obstruction, repression, restraint; deterrence, discouragement
hindrance
help (noun)
2.
a thing that helps
SYNONIMS:
advantage, aid, asset, benefit, boon
RELATED WORDS:
hand, lift, pick-me-up; support, sustenance; blessing, godsend, windfall; recourse, refuge, resort, resource
NEAR ANTONYMS:
constraint, inhibitor, liability, obstacle, obstruction, restraint, stranglehold
disadvantage, drawback, encumbrance, hindrance, impediment, minus
help (noun)
3.
a body of persons at work or available for work
SYNONIMS:
help, labor force, manpower, personnel, pool, staff, workforce
RELATED WORDS:
labor, proletariat, rank and file; band, company, crew, gang, outfit, party, squad, team; employee ( employe), helper, hireling, worker; blood; support
help (verb)
1.
to provide (someone) with what is useful or necessary to achieve an end
SYNONIMS:
abet, aid, assist, back, backstop, prop (up), support
RELATED WORDS:
advance, ease, facilitate, forward, foster, further, launch; champion, endorse ( indorse), patronize, promote, sponsor; attend, care (for), comfort, minister (to), succor; sustain; bolster, boost, buttress, reinforce ( reenforce); advise, counsel, guide, mentor, nurture; bail out, deliver, rescue, save; embolden, encourage, hearten; benefit, favor, oblige, profit, serve
bear a hand, to stand one in good stead
NEAR ANTONYMS:
balk, bar, block, constrain, hamper, handicap, hold back, impede, inhibit, obstruct, restrain, strangle; baffle, foil, frustrate, inconvenience, interfere, oppose, sabotage, thwart; desert, disappoint, fail, let down; discourage, dishearten; repress, retard, stifle, straiten, stunt; damage, harm, hurt, injure
hinder
help (verb)
2.
to make more bearable or less severe
SYNONIMS:
allay, alleviate, assuage, ease, mitigate, mollify, palliate, relieve, soothe
RELATED WORDS:
abate, lighten, moderate, soften, temper; cure, heal, remedy; amend, correct, emend, fix, mend, rectify, reform, repair; ameliorate, better, enhance, enrich, improve, meliorate, perfect, refine
NEAR ANTONYMS:
harm, hurt, impair, injure; heighten, intensify, sharpen
aggravate, exacerbate
help (verb)
3.
to keep from happening by taking action in advance
SYNONIMS:
avert, forestall, head off, help, obviate, preclude, stave off
RELATED WORDS:
anticipate, provide; negate, neutralize, nullify; save; baffle, balk, checkmate, deter, foil, frustrate, thwart; bar, block, hamper, hinder, impede, interfere (with), retard, stall; deflect, fend (off), stop, ward (off); avoid, circumvent, dodge, duck, elude, escape, eschew, evade, shake, shirk, shun; forbid, inhibit, prohibit; arrest, check, halt, stop; compensate (for), counteract, counterbalance, make up (for), offset
NEAR ANTONYMS:
abet, aid, assist; ease, facilitate, smooth, unclog; advance, cultivate, encourage, forward, foster, further, nurture, promote; allow, leave, let, permit
help (verb)
4.
to provide with something useful or desirable
SYNONIMS:
advantage, avail, help, profit, serve
RELATED WORDS:
succeed, work (for); aid, assist; better, improve; content, delight, gladden, gratify, please, satisfy; bless
NEAR ANTONYMS:
hinder, impede; damage, harm, hurt, impair, injure; afflict, distress, upset
help (verb)
5.
to make better
SYNONIMS:
ameliorate, amend, better, enhance, enrich, help, meliorate, perfect, refine, upgrade
RELATED WORDS:
correct, emend, rectify, reform, remediate, remedy; edit, fine-tune, redraft, refurbish, rehab, rehabilitate, revamp, revise, rework; beef (up), boost, fortify, intensify, reinforce ( reenforce), strengthen; fine, hone, polish; retouch, touch up
NEAR ANTONYMS:
damage, endamage, harm, hurt, impair, injure, spoil, tarnish, vitiate; blemish, blight, deface, disfigure, flaw, mar; diminish, lessen, lower, reduce
worsen

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