HELP - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

HELPAuthored

The Law Mind • 756 words

Definition

In legal contexts, "help" functions primarily as a term of contract and obligation rather than as a term of art. When used in an agreement, it denotes an undertaking to render assistance, effort, or services toward a specified goal. The precise scope of that obligation — whether it requires only reasonable effort, best efforts, or something more — is a question of contractual interpretation, and courts generally treat "help" as equivalent to "aid" or "assist" when construing such agreements.

Because "help" is an ordinary English word imported into legal instruments without specialized redefinition, its meaning in any given document is controlled by context, the surrounding terms of the agreement, and the parties' apparent intent. Its content is not fixed by legal doctrine in the way that terms like "consideration" or "negligence" are.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Action given to provide assistance; aid. Also: someone employed to assist in the maintenance of a house or the operation of a farm or enterprise.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To furnish with strength or means for the successful performance of any action or the attainment of any object; to aid; to assist.

The gap between common and legal meaning here is narrow but consequential at the margins. In ordinary speech, "help" implies an indefinite or informal degree of assistance. In a contract, however, the same word may carry enforceable weight — and the question of what level of effort satisfies the obligation (reasonable effort? best efforts?) becomes legally significant. Courts have declined to allow parol evidence to expand or redefine the word once the parties have used it in a written agreement.

Common Confusion

"Help" is sometimes loosely treated as synonymous with "aid," "assist," or "facilitate" in legal drafting, but these words can carry distinct legal meanings in specific contexts. "Aid" has particular significance in criminal law (aiding and abetting), while "facilitate" may carry its own meaning in regulatory and criminal statutes. A researcher encountering "help" in a historical contract should not assume it imports the same legal freight as these other terms without examining the specific context. See AID; ASSIST; FACILITATE.

Why It Matters in Research

Researchers should approach "help" with two cautions. First, when encountered in historical contracts or pleadings, the word should be read in light of the surrounding agreement rather than assigned a fixed legal meaning — courts have consistently treated it as a plain-language term subject to contextual interpretation. Anderson's entry is instructive here: it cross-references AID and treats "help" not as an independent term of art but as a word whose meaning is determined by how the parties used it.

Second, the evidentiary rule flagged in Anderson's is worth noting. Where parties have committed to writing an agreement using "help," and where their pleadings reflect a mutual construction of what that word requires, courts have held that parol evidence is not admissible to contradict or supplement that construction. This is not unique to the word "help," but researchers analyzing historical contract disputes should flag it when the operative term is this kind of ordinary-language word given a specific meaning in context.

In historical legal sources, "help" rarely appears as a headword in its own right — it is typically subsumed under AID or ASSISTANCE. Researchers scanning older digests or indices for this term should be prepared to pivot to those entries.

Historical Dictionary Support

Anderson's Dictionary of Law treats "help" briefly and directs readers to AID as the primary entry. The sole illustrative case provided involves a contract in which A was promised payment if he would "help" B effect a land sale. The parties themselves, in their pleadings, construed the word to mean that A would use his best efforts to bring about the sale — and the court accepted that construction without permitting parol evidence to alter it. This example is useful for what it reveals about judicial method: courts in this period were willing to take the parties' own pleaded interpretation as determinative of a common word's meaning, foreclosing extrinsic evidence.

No other standard historical legal dictionaries (Bouvier, Black's early editions, Burrill) treat "help" as a primary legal term. This absence is itself informative — it confirms that the word carried no specialized legal meaning distinct from its ordinary sense, and that its legal significance arose entirely from deployment in particular instruments.

HELPmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

See AID, 1. In an action by A to recover money promised him if he would "help" B to effect the sale of land, it was admitted that A had rendered the required services, and the parties in their pleadings construed the agreement to be that A should use his best effort to bring about the sale. Held, that parol evidence was not admissible to explain the word.5

HELPv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To furnish with strength or means for the successful performance of any action or the attainment of any object; to aid; to assist; as, to help a man in his work; to help one to remember; -- the following infinitive is commonly used without to; as, "Help me scale yon balcony." Longfellow. To furnish with the means of deliverance from trouble; as, to help one in distress; to help one out of prison. "God help, poor souls, how idly do they talk!" Shak. 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. "To help him of his blindness." in is used for that function; -- "to help him in his misery" Shak. The true calamus helps coughs. Gerarde. To change for the better; to remedy. Cease to lament for what thou canst not help. Shak. To prevent; to hinder; as, the evil approaches, and who can help it Swift. To forbear; to avoid. I can not help remarking the resemblance betwixt him and our author. Pope. To wait upon, as the guests at table, by carving and passing food. To help forward, to assist in advancing.  -- To help off, to help to go or pass away, as time; to assist in removing. Locke.  -- To help on, to forward; to promote by aid.  -- To help out, to aid, as in delivering from a difficulty, or to aid in completing a design or task. The god of learning and of light Would want a god himself to help him out. Swift. -- To help over, to enable to surmount; as, to help one over an obstacle.  -- To help to, to supply with; to furnish with; as, to help one to soup.  -- To help up, to help (one) to get up; to assist in rising, as after a fall, and the like. "A man is well holp up that trusts to you." Shak.

HELPv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To lend aid or assistance; to contribute strength or means; to avail or be of use; to assist. A generous present helps to persuade, as well as an agreeable person. Garth. To help out, to lend aid; to bring a supply.

HELPn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

Strength or means furnished toward promoting an object, or deliverance from difficulty or distress; aid; ^; also, the person or thing furnishing the aid; as, he gave me a help of fifty dollars. Give us help from trouble, for vain is the help of man. Ps. lx. 11. God is . . . a very present help in trouble. Ps. xlvi. 1. Virtue is a friend and a help to nature. South. Remedy; relief; as, there is no help for it. A helper; one hired to help another; also, thew hole force of hired helpers in any business. Specifically, a domestic servant, man or woman. [Local, U. S.]

helpnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

Action given to provide assistance; aid. | Something or someone which provides assistance with a task. | Documentation provided with computer software that could be accessed using the computer. | A study aid. | One or more people employed to help in the maintenance of a house or the operation of a farm or enterprise. | Correction of deficits, as by psychological counseling or medication or social support or remedial training.

helpverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

To provide assistance to (someone or something). | To assist (a person) in getting something, especially food or drink at table; used with to. | To contribute in some way to. | To provide assistance. | To avoid; to prevent; to refrain from; to restrain (oneself). Usually used in nonassertive contexts with can. | To do something on the behalf of someone. | To assist or sympathize with (the speaker); used to express displeasure, disappointment or exasperation.

HELPnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Initialism of heat escape lessening position: a crouching position with the knees held close to the chest, used to conserve body heat in cold water.

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