What does helpless mean

From NOLA. Unlike everyone else, however, they also reported feelings of guilt, failure, and helplessness when their patients couldn't be cured. It can also be a painful reminder of a family's helplessness. From Los Angeles Times. The obituaries will bemoan the collapse of the center; they will express panic at the helplessness of reason in the face of powerful new extremes.

From Slate Magazine. It's the helplessness and terror of sudden visions of a ripping sensation in your back, shrapnel coursing through your chest, total blackness, maybe death. From The Seattle Times. These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Translations of helplessness in Spanish. See more. Need a translator? Translator tool. What is the pronunciation of helplessness? Browse helping. Test your vocabulary with our fun image quizzes. Time Traveler for helpless The first known use of helpless was before the 12th century See more words from the same century. Style: MLA. English Language Learners Definition of helpless. Kids Definition of helpless. Get Word of the Day daily email! Test Your Vocabulary. Test your visual vocabulary with our question challenge!

Love words? Need even more definitions? Just between us: it's complicated. Alex US English. David US English. Mark US English. Daniel British. Libby British. Mia British. Karen Australian. Hayley Australian. Natasha Australian. Veena Indian. Priya Indian. Neerja Indian. Zira US English. Oliver British. Wendy British. I feel helpless at moments because I do not know how to help the people who lost their families and friends.

At the stage when you are a helpless baby, Mom is, literally, everything. The fingers of all the clocks in the house were revolving with the most extraordinary rapidity--she was helpless. She was helpless , because she had said nothing all day of her appointment, and because Janet had not mentioned it either. The keen resentment had faded from his face, but an immense reproach was there—a heavy, helpless , appealing reproach.