helpless
English
editEtymology
editFrom 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
editAdjective
edithelpless (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
- 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: FTL Drive Codex entry:
- Rana Thanoptis: Are we good? Can I go?
Shepard: You conducted brutal experiments on helpless test subjects. You helped Saren. You don't get to live.
- 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, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- For, while they fly that gulf's devouring jawes,
They on the rock are rent and sunck in helplesse wawes.
Derived terms
editTranslations
editunable to defend oneself — see also defenseless
|
lacking help; powerless
|
unable to act without help; needing help; feeble
|
uncontrollable — see uncontrollable
Further reading
edit- “helpless”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “helpless”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
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 terms 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