to help oneself
72
3.4
- phrasal verb
- Help yourself to a glass of this New York State champagne.
- Please help yourself
- Help yourself to coffee
- Help yourself to a drink
Examples
-
"Now, the salad bar is included with your meal, so you can help yourself anytime."
Fiction book (1992) -
If you change your mind about going out, help yourself to one of the boats.
Fiction book (1991) -
- You can just help yourself, sir.
-
So you just let yourself in and start helping yourself to our beer?
-
My husband and I will be out visiting our new daughter all night, so you help yourself.
Blog text (8) -
Listen, you guys, help yourself to anything in the fridge.
Fiction book (1995) -
"Please help yourself to the madeleines," she said, gesturing to the cookies.
Fiction book (2001) -
Breakfast was an informal buffet where you helped yourself to coffee and juice and chose from a variety of cereals, bread, and fruit.
Fiction book (1993) -
Please help oneself to a slice of cake from the table.
-
At the party, guests were encouraged to help oneself to drinks and snacks.
How Much
Surface Forms
Morphology
help + oneself
Although the parts 'help' and 'oneself' are individually transparent, the sense in 'can't help oneself'—'be unable to stop or resist doing something'—uses 'help' in a non-literal, somewhat metaphorical way (prevent/control rather than assist). This semantic shift is context-dependent and not fully predictable from the constituents, so a B1 learner who only knows the words would likely not reliably infer the meaning.
Etymology
Help oneself comes from table manners: help meant 'serve' and oneself meant 'yourself', so people would help themselves by putting food on their own plate at a meal. That's why it now means 'to take or use something for yourself, especially food, often without asking'.