helpless
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
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[edit]
Adjective[edit]
helpless (comparative more helpless, superlative most helpless)
- 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
- 1995, Bryan Adams, Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?
- 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.
- Unable to act without help; needing help; feeble.
- Uncontrollable.
- a helpless urge
- (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.
- For, while they fly that gulf's devouring jawes,
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
unable to defend oneself
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unable to act without help
uncontrollable — see uncontrollable
Further reading[edit]
- helpless in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- helpless in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English words suffixed with -less
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with obsolete senses