help

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• intransitive verb To give assistance to (someone); make it easier for (someone) to do something; aid.
• intransitive verb To give material or financial aid to.
• intransitive verb To wait on, as in a store or restaurant.
• intransitive verb To contribute to the effectiveness or improvement of (something); improve or advance.
• intransitive verb To ease the pain or discomfort of; relieve.
• intransitive verb To refrain from; avoid or resist. Used with can or cannot:
• intransitive verb To be of service; give assistance.
• intransitive verb To be of use or provide relief.
• noun The action of helping; assistance.
• noun One that helps.
• noun Archaic A person employed to help, especially a farm worker or domestic servant.
• noun Such employees considered as a group. Often used with the.
• idiom (help (oneself) to) To serve or provide oneself with.
• idiom Informal (help (oneself) to) To take (something) without asking permission.
• idiom (help (someone) off) To assist (someone) in taking off a piece of clothing.
• idiom (help (someone) on) To assist in putting on a piece of clothing.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun Assistance; aid given toward doing, accomplishing, or attaining anything, as labor, escape from danger or difficulty, discharge of obligations, etc.
• noun Remedy; relief; succor; means of deliverance: as, failure is inevitable, there is no help for it.
• noun A source of aid, relief, or succor; a helper.
• noun Hence An assistant; a hired laborer or servant; especially, a domestic or household servant; collectively, servants or assistants; the supply of workers.
• To furnish aid to; contribute strength or means to; assist in doing, accomplishing, or attaining anything; assist; aid: as, to help a man in his work; to help one out of difficulties. See to help to, below.
• To bring succor or relief to; relieve; rescue.
• To mitigate, as pain or disease; heal, relieve, or comfort, as a person in pain or distress.
• To mend; repair.
• To change for the better; remedy: as, he cannot help his deformity.
• To prevent; avoid; forbear; keep or refrain from: with can or cannot.
• To increase; aggravate.
• To aid in going, removing, getting, etc.: with ellipsis of to go, to get, etc.: as, help me in (that is, help me to go in); help me off my horse.
• To give out in portions.
• To lend aid; be of use; avail.
• To serve or distribute food, as at table.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• intransitive verb To lend aid or assistance; to contribute strength or means; to avail or be of use; to assist.
• intransitive verb to lend aid; to bring a supply.
• noun Strength or means furnished toward promoting an object, or deliverance from difficulty or distress; aid; ^; also, the person or thing furnishing the aid.
• noun Remedy; relief.
• noun A helper; one hired to help another; also, thew hole force of hired helpers in any business.
• noun Local, U. S. Specifically, a domestic servant, man or woman.
• transitive verb To furnish with strength or means for the successful performance of any action or the attainment of any object; to aid; to assist; ; -- the following infinitive is commonly used without to
• transitive verb To furnish with the means of deliverance from trouble
• transitive verb To furnish with relief, as in pain or disease; to be of avail against; -- sometimes with of before a word designating the pain or disease, and sometimes having such a word for the direct object.
• transitive verb To change for the better; to remedy.
• transitive verb To prevent; to hinder; as, the evil approaches, and who can help it?
• transitive verb To forbear; to avoid.
• transitive verb To wait upon, as the guests at table, by carving and passing food.
• transitive verb to assist in advancing.
• transitive verb to help to go or pass away, as time; to assist in removing.
• transitive verb to forward; to promote by aid.