helpless
part of speech
adjective (helpless, more helpless, most helpless)
meaning for a pupil
1) Helpless means not able to look after yourself or do things without help, like a newborn baby. tree →
2) Helpless means unable to change a bad situation or stop something happening. tree →
3) Helpless laughter is laughter you cannot stop. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science, many baby animals and human babies are born helpless and need their parents to feed and protect them. In stories, a helpless character needs rescuing, or feels helpless watching something bad happen. In safety and kindness lessons, we help those who are helpless and tell adults if someone is in trouble. Phrases: feel helpless, helpless baby, helpless with laughter.
examples
- A newborn baby is completely helpless. tree →
- Baby birds are helpless and need their parents to feed them. tree →
- I felt helpless when I saw my kite stuck in the tree. tree →
- The puppy lay helpless in the cold rain until we rescued it. tree →
- They were helpless with laughter at the funny film. tree →
- Without its shell, a tortoise would be helpless. tree →
- I have to look after my grandmother, who is very helpless.’ tree →
note
Adjective: help + -less (without help). Noun: helplessness. Adverb: helplessly. Opposite ideas: independent, capable. «Helpless» is about not being able to help yourself; «unhelpful» means not willing to help others.
In the corpora
- The old gaoler's rusty key creaks, the door clangs — and Toad is a helpless prisoner.
- Seeing a parent collapse is very scary; knowing how to call the emergency number and what to say helps children feel less helpless.
- He croucheth, he boweth down, and the helpless fall into his mighty claws.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «helpless» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.