Helplessness
['hɛlplɪsnɪs]
Definition
(noun.) powerlessness revealed by an inability to act; 'in spite of their weakness the group remains active'.
(noun.) a feeling of being unable to manage.
(noun.) the state of needing help from something.
Checker: Wendy--From WordNet
Examples
- But this was not the effect of time so much as of the change in all my habits made by the helplessness and inaction of a sick-room. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- The appeal of her helplessness touched in him, as it always did, a latent chord of inclination. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- The loneliness and helplessness of the woman touched me. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- The utter helplessness of the wreck of him that lay cast ashore there, now alarmed her, but he himself appeared a little more hopeful. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- I am strong, strongly, disinclined to avail myself of your generosity, though my helplessness yields. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- Yet if helplessness were all there were in dependence, no development could ever take place. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- I wondered over our helplessness, for I was during a period one of those officials. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- On this side his helplessness is almost complete. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- After each question he tilted me over a little more, so as to give me a greater sense of helplessness and danger. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- The effect of that upon young Barnacle was to make him a wonderful spectacle of failure and helplessness. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- And Birkin, watching like a hermit crab from its hole, had seen the brilliant frustration and helplessness of Ursula. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- All the while her eyes, in which the tears had not yet dried, were dilated as if in a kind of swoon of fascination and helplessness. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Her resolution not to enter on the question with him, and his knowledge of her indomitable character, enhanced his sense of helplessness. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- The man shuddered as he meditated upon the awful gravity, the fearful helplessness, of their situation. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- In answering her I committed a fatal error--I let the exasperating helplessness of my situation get the better of my self-control. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
Editor: Rhoda