helping hand
31
1.4
- noun
:
ayuda
- Sometimes, all a person needs is a helping hand to get back on their feet.
- lend a helping hand
- extend a helping hand
There are still many people who need our helping hands.
- There are still many people who need our helping hands.
- So those who you know, need a helping hand, get a helping hand.
- And then also it might give it a little nudge, a little helping hand along the way to maybe kick start labour.
- And that it seems like that's where technology is very useful as a guide, as a helping hand.
- But I would say that books and people in books have definitely been that navigation guide and helping hand that I've needed.
- When I was designing my project, they gave me a helping hand, one friend reading every word of each proposal.
Examples
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Victims of circumstances beyond their control, they deserved not contempt but a helping hand.
Academic text (1997) -
Life is a hard struggle, sir... and it is the duty of those whose struggle is lighter... to give a helping hand to those for whom it is very hard.
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This service can provide a much needed helping hand for you and your loved ones.
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All you have to do is give a kind word, a simple helping hand in that situation.
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Can you give them a helping hand?
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Need a helping hand at home?
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I like the idea of government providing a helping hand up for those in need.
Blog text (12) -
Welfare is supposed to be a helping hand until you can find a job.
Blog text (5) -
Money meant little to him except as a means of extending a helping hand to the less fortunate.
Academic text (2010) -
I'm happy to relate that I'm now in a position to extend to you a helping hand.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Help that someone gives to another person to do a task
∞
1.0
Help for a person or idea
947
1.0
Help given to someone that makes a task easier or gives money
799
1.0
Help given to people or places in need
356
1.0
A person or thing that makes a task easier
Antonyms
How Helpful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'assistance or support' is directly and predictably derived from combining 'help' (to assist) with 'hand' (metaphorically used for assistance). The noun phrase uses a common, cross-linguistic 'hand = help' metaphor and follows standard compositional patterns, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily understand it.
Etymology
Helping hand comes from the simple image of someone holding out a hand to lift, steady, or pass something to another person. That's why helping hand now means 'assistance' or 'support' when someone needs help.