so help me
Variant of help
help (help)
transitive verb
- to make things easier or better for (a person); aid; assist; specif.,
- to give (one in need or trouble) something necessary, as relief, succor, money, etc. to help the poor
- to do part of the work of; ease or share the labor of to help someone lift a load
- to aid in getting (up, down, in, etc. or to, into, out of, etc.) help her into the house
- to make it easier for (something) to exist, happen, develop, improve, etc.; specif.,
- to make more effective, larger, more intense, etc.; aid the growth of; promote a tax to help the schools
- to cause improvement in; remedy; alleviate; relieve a medicine that helps a cold
- to keep from; avoid he can't help coughing
- to stop, prevent, change, etc. a misfortune that can't be helped
- to serve or wait on (a customer, client, etc.)
Etymology: ME helpen < OE helpan, akin to Ger helfen < IE base *elb-, *elp-, to help > early Lith sělbinos, to aid
intransitive verb
- to give assistance; be cooperative, useful, or beneficial
- to act as a waiter, clerk, servant, etc.
noun
- the act of helping or a thing that helps; aid; assistance
- relief; cure; remedy
- ☆
- a helper; esp., a hired helper, as a domestic servant, farmhand, etc.
- hired helpers; employees
Etymology: ME < OE < base of the v.; in U.S., sense of “servant,” prob. a euphemism to avoid stigma of “serve”
interjection
cannot help but
cannot help oneself
help oneself to
- to serve or provide oneself with (food, etc.)
- to take without asking or being given; steal
help out
so help me (God)
Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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