helplessly
English
Pronunciation
- enPR: hĕlpʹləs-lē, IPA(key): /ˈhɛlpləsli/
Audio (US) (file)
Adverb
helplessly (comparative more helplessly, superlative most helplessly)
- Without protection or assistance.
- The fish flopped helplessly in the tiny remaining pool.
- Without the ability to help oneself.
- The boy rolled on the floor laughing helplessly.
- 1854, Thomas De Quincey, “On Murder, Considered as One of the Fine Arts. Postscript.”, in Miscellanies (De Quincey’s Works; IV), London: James Hogg & Sons, →OCLC, page 76:
- The whole covey of victims was thus netted; the household ruin was thus full and orbicular; and in that proportion the tendency of men and women, flutter as they might, would be helplessly and hopelessly to sink into the all-conquering hands of the mighty murderer.
- Without the ability to react actively.
- The spectators gaped helplessly as the balloon approached the power lines.
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