helpless

English

Etymology

From Middle English helples, from Old English *helplēas (“helpless”) from Proto-Germanic *helpōlausaz, equivalent to help +‎ -less. Compare Dutch hulpeloos (“helpless”), German hilflos (“helpless”), Swedish hjälplös (“helpless”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɛlplɪs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: help‧less

Adjective

helpless (comparative more helpless, superlative most helpless)

1. Unable to defend oneself.
   • 1995, Bryan Adams, Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?

     Then when you find yourself lyin' helpless in her arms

     You know you really love a woman

2. Lacking help; powerless.
   • 1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 41:

     A gaoler struck him, pushing him back in place in the hopeless, helpless line of prisoners.

3. Unable to act without help; needing help; feeble.
4. Uncontrollable.

   a helpless urge

5. (obsolete) From which there is no possibility of being saved.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, (please specify the book):

     For, while they fly that gulf's devouring jawes,
     They on the rock are rent and sunck in helplesse wawes.

Derived terms

• helplessly
• helplessness

Translations

unable to defend oneself

• Arabic: عَاجِز‎ (ʿājiz)
• Bengali: লাচার (lacar), নাচার (nacar)
• Bulgarian: безпомощен (bg) (bezpomošten)
• Catalan: indefens
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 無助的 (zh), 无助的 (zh) (wúzhù), 無力的 (zh), 无力的 (zh) (wúlì de)

• Danish: hjælpeløs (da)
• Dutch: hulpeloos (nl)
• Esperanto: senhelpa
• Finnish: avuton (fi)
• Georgian: უმწეო (umc̣eo)
• German: hilflos (de)
• Hindi: लाचार (hi) (lācār), बेबस (hi) (bebas), विवश (hi) (vivaś)
• Hungarian: tehetetlen (hu)
• Ido: senhelpa
• Igbo: enweghị enyemaka
• Irish: fágtha
• Italian: indifeso (it)
• Japanese: 無力な (ja) (むりょくな, muryoku na)

• Khmer: ដែលឥតអនុភាព (dael ət a’nu’pʰiep)
• Korean: 무력한 (muryeokhan)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: ناچار‎ (ku) (naçar), بێ دەسەڵات‎ (bê desellat)

• Latin: inops
• Malagasy: afa-manoatra
• Maltese: hilflose
• Maori: paraheahea
• Plautdietsch: halplooss
• Portuguese: indefeso (pt)
• Romanian: neajutorat (ro)
• Russian: беспо́мощный (ru) (bespómoščnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: бе̏спомоћан

  Roman: bȅspomoćan (sh)

• Spanish: indefenso (es)
• Swedish: hjälplös (sv)
• Ukrainian: безсилий (uk) (bezsylyj), безпомічний (uk) (bezpomičnyj)
• West Frisian: helpleas

unable to act without help

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 無助 (zh) (wú zhù)

• Finnish: avuton (fi)
• French: désemparé (fr)

• Japanese: 無力 (ja) (muryoku)
• Maori: mohemohe, paraheahea
• Spanish: incapaz (es)

uncontrollable — see uncontrollable

Further reading

• helpless in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• helpless in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.