Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Helpless

Help′less

,
Adj.
1.
Destitute of help or strength; unable to help or defend one’s self; needing help; feeble; weak;
as, a helpless infant
.
How shall I then your
helpless
fame defend?
Pope.
2.
Beyond help; irremediable.
Some
helpless
disagreement or dislike, either of mind or body.
Milton.
3.
Bringing no help; unaiding.
[Obs.]
Yet since the gods have been
Helpless
foreseers of my plagues.
Chapman.
4.
Unsupplied; destitute; – with of.
[R.]
Help′less-ly
,
adv.
Help′less-ness
,
Noun.

Webster 1828 Edition


Helpless

HELP'LESS

,
Adj.
Without help in one's self; destitute of the power or means to succor or relieve one's self. A person is rendered helpless by weakness, or want of means.
An infant is helpless.
1.
Destitute of support or assistance.
How shall I then your helpless fame defend?
2.
Admitting no help; irremediable. [Not used.]
3.
Unsupplied; destitute.
Helpless of all that human wants require. [Not used.]

Definition 2024


helpless

helpless

English

Adjective

helpless (comparative more helpless, superlative most helpless)

  1. Unable to defend oneself.
  2. Unable to act without help.
  3. Uncontrollable.
    a helpless urge
  4. (obsolete) From which there is no possibility of being saved.
    • Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene
      For, while they fly that gulf's devouring jawes,
      They on the rock are rent and sunck in helplesse wawes.

Translations

External links

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