Word Study
helpless
CIDE DICTIONARY
helpless, a.
- Destitute of help or strength; unable to help or defend one's self; needing help; feeble; weak; as, a helpless infant. [1913 Webster]"How shall I then your helpless fame defend?" [1913 Webster]
- Beyond help; irremediable. [1913 Webster]"Some helpless disagreement or dislike, either of mind or body." [1913 Webster]
- Bringing no help; unaiding. [1913 Webster]"Yet since the gods have been
Helpless foreseers of my plagues." [1913 Webster] - Unsupplied; destitute; -- with of. [1913 Webster]"Helpless of all that human wants require."
OXFORD DICTIONARY
helpless, adj.
1 lacking help or protection; defenceless.
2 unable to act without help.
1 lacking help or protection; defenceless.
2 unable to act without help.
Derivative
helplessly adv. helplessness n.
THESAURUS
helpless
abandoned, aidless, at sea, baffled, bare-handed, bewildered, blind, blind drunk, blotto, confounded, confused, crippled, debilitated, defenseless, dependent, deserted, desolate, disabled, enervated, enfeebled, exhausted, faint, fatherless, feeble, forlorn, forsaken, friendless, godforsaken, guardless, guideless, helpless, homeless, impotent, incapable, incompetent, inefficient, inept, infirm, kithless, lame, leaderless, motherless, muddled, mystified, nonplussed, out, out cold, outcast, overcome, paralyzed, passed out, perplexed, pregnable, prostrate, spent, stiff, stoned, unarmed, unarmored, unattended, unavailing, uncovered, undefended, under the table, unfit, unfortified, unfriended, ungarrisoned, unguarded, unprotected, unqualified, unscreened, unsheltered, unshielded, unsuspecting, untenable, unwarned, unwatched, useless, vulnerable, weak, weakened, weaponless, worn out, worthlessROGET THESAURUS
helpless
Danger
N danger, peril, insecurity, jeopardy, risk, hazard, venture, precariousness, slipperiness, instability, defenselessness, exposure, vulnerability, vulnerable point, heel of Achilles, forlorn hope, leap in the dark, road to ruin, faciles descensus Averni, hairbreadth escape, cause for alarm, source of danger, rock ahead, breakers ahead, storm brewing, clouds in the horizon, clouds gathering, warning, alarm, apprehension, in danger, endangered, fraught with danger, dangerous, hazardous, perilous, parlous, periculous, unsafe, unprotected &c (safe, protect), insecure, untrustworthy, built upon, sand, on a sandy basis, wildcat, defenseless, fenceless, guardless, harborless, unshielded, vulnerable, expugnable, exposed, open to, aux abois, at bay, on the wrong side of the wall, on a lee shore, on the rocks, at stake, in question, precarious, critical, ticklish, slippery, slippy, hanging by a thread, with a halter round one's neck, between the hammer and the anvil, between Scylla and Charybdis, between a rock and a hard place, between the devil and the deep blue sea, between two fires, on the edge of a precipice, on the brink of a precipice, on the verge of a precipice, on the edge of a volcano, in the lion's den, on slippery ground, under fire, not out of the wood, unwarned, unadmonished, unadvised, unprepared, off one's guard, tottering, unstable, unsteady, shaky, top-heavy, tumbledown, ramshackle, crumbling, waterlogged, helpless, guideless, in a bad way, reduced to the last extremity, at the last extremity, trembling in the balance, nodding to its fall, threatening, ominous, illomened, alarming, explosive, adventurous, incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim, nam tua res agitur paries dum proximus ardet.Impotence
N impotence, inability, disability, disablement, impuissance, imbecility, incapacity, incapability, inaptitude, ineptitude, incompetence, unproductivity, indocility, invalidity, disqualification, inefficiency, wastefulness, telum imbelle, brutum fulmen, blank, blank cartridge, flash in the pan, vox et proeterea nihil, dead letter, bit of waste paper, dummy, paper tiger, Quaker gun, inefficacy, failure, helplessness, prostration, paralysis, palsy, apoplexy, syncope, sideration, deliquium, collapse, exhaustion, softening of the brain, inanition, emasculation, orchiotomy, orchotomy, cripple, old woman, muff, powder puff, creampuff, pussycat, wimp, mollycoddle, eunuch, powerless, impotent, unable, incapable, incompetent, inefficient, ineffective, inept, unfit, unfitted, unqualified, disqualified, unendowed, inapt, unapt, crippled, disabled, armless, harmless, unarmed, weaponless, defenseless, sine ictu, unfortified, indefensible, vincible, pregnable, untenable, paralytic, paralyzed, palsied, imbecile, nerveless, sinewless, marrowless, pithless, lustless, emasculate, disjointed, out of joint, out of gear, unnerved, unhinged, water-logged, on one's beam ends, rudderless, laid on one's back, done up, dead beat, exhausted, shattered, demoralized, graveled, helpless, unfriended, fatherless, without a leg to stand on, hors de combat, laid on the shelf, null and void, nugatory, inoperative, good for nothing, ineffectual, inadequate, inefficacious, der kranke Mann, desirous still but impotent to rise, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.For further exploring for "helpless" in Webster Dictionary Online