helpmeet


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helpmeet

a helpmate; spouse [Helpmeet was derived from a misreading in the King James Bible where God promises Adam “to make a help meet for him,” meaning a help suitable for him. As Eve became the “help,” “help meet” was interpreted as “spouse.”]
Not to be confused with:
helpmate – companion and helper; husband or wife; anything that assists
Abused, Confused, & Misused Words by Mary Embree Copyright © 2007, 2013 by Mary Embree

help·meet

 (hĕlp′mēt′)
n.
A helpmate.

[From misunderstanding of the phrase an help meet for him, a helper suitable for him (Adam), in Genesis 2:18, referring to Eve.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

helpmeet

(ˈhɛlpˌmiːt)
n
a less common word for helpmate
[C17: from the phrase an helpe meet (suitable) for him Genesis 2:18]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

help•mate

(ˈhɛlpˌmeɪt)

n.
1. a companion and helper.
2. a wife or husband.
[1705–15; help + mate1, by association with helpmeet]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.helpmeet - a helpful partner
better half, married person, partner, spouse, mate - a person's partner in marriage
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
References in classic literature ?
This gift will be a pledge of your purity of heart to her whom you select to be your worthy helpmeet in Masonry." And after a pause, he added: "But beware, dear brother, that these gloves do not deck hands that are unclean." While the Grand Master said these last words it seemed to Pierre that he grew embarrassed.
"Thou who didst from the beginning create male and female," the priest read after the exchange of rings, "from Thee woman was given to man to be a helpmeet to him, and for the procreation of children.
The prayer-meeting at Uncle Tom's had, in the order of hymn-singing, been protracted to a very late hour; and, as Uncle Tom had indulged himself in a few lengthy solos afterwards, the consequence was, that, although it was now between twelve and one o'clock, he and his worthy helpmeet were not yet asleep.
"Jane, come with me to India: come as my helpmeet and fellow- labourer."
I want a wife: the sole helpmeet I can influence efficiently in life, and retain absolutely till death."
Each must hie to her own home; wend you we might do all these journeys in one so brief life as He hath appointed that created life, and thereto death likewise with help of Adam, who by sin done through persuasion of his helpmeet, she being wrought upon and bewrayed by the beguilements of the great enemy of man, that serpent hight Satan, aforetime consecrated and set apart unto that evil work by over- mastering spite and envy begotten in his heart through fell ambitions that did blight and mildew a nature erst so white and pure whenso it hove with the shining multitudes its brethren-born in glade and shade of that fair heaven wherein all such as native be to that rich estate and --"
Woman is the intellectual helpmeet of man in public as in private life.
Shaw, asleep up stairs, saw with sudden clearness what a wife should be to her husband, a helpmeet, not a burden.
What recollections, therefore, of the kind helpmeet of former days may not have moved the breast of the poor broken old man to this boundless affection for the boy?
590-612) For from her is the race of women and female kind: of her is the deadly race and tribe of women who live amongst mortal men to their great trouble, no helpmeets in hateful poverty, but only in wealth.
It is indeed an honor and a pleasure to at long last make your acquaintance-for you must be, kind sir, my most assiduous helpmeet, Dr.
His faithful and tireless helpmeet was his beautiful wife, Celia Diaz-Laurel.