different between destitute vs helpless

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?d?st?tju?t/
• (yod coalescence) IPA^(key): /?d?st?t?u?t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?d?st?tu?t/
• Hyphenation: des?ti?tute

Etymology 1

From Middle English destitute, destitut, from Latin d?stit?tus.

Adjective

destitute (comparative more destitute, superlative most destitute)

1. (followed by the preposition "of") Lacking something; devoid
   • 1827, James Fenimore Cooper, The Prairie Chapter 9

     Now, though this region may scarcely be said to be wedded to science, being to all intents a virgin territory as respects the enquirer into natural history, still it is greatly destitute of the treasures of the vegetable kingdom.

   • 1611 King James Bible, Psalms 141:8

     In thee is my trust; leave not my soul destitute.

2. lacking money; poor, impoverished
   • May 24, 2018, Alex Vadukul in The New York Times, The Forgotten Entertainer Rag

     In 1907 he moved from St. Louis to New York City, arriving as a famous composer. But he died a decade later at the age of 49, destitute in an asylum on Wards Island as ragtime was fading in popularity.

   • 1918, Henry Leyford Gates translating Aurora Mardiganian, Ravished Armenia

     according to the most careful estimates, 3,950,000 destitute peoples, mostly women and children who had been driven many of them as far as one thousand miles from home, turn their pitiful faces toward America for help in the reconstructive period in which we are now living.

   • 1841, Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge, Chapter 45

     ‘Do you know how pinched and destitute I am?’ she retorted. ‘I do not think you do, or can. If you had eyes, and could look around you on this poor place, you would have pity on me. […] ’

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:impoverished

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English destituten, from the adjective (see above).

Verb

destitute (third-person singular simple present destitutes, present participle destituting, simple past and past participle destituted)

1. (transitive) To impoverish; to strip of wealth, resources, etc.

Translations

Latin

Adjective

d?stit?te

1. vocative masculine singular of d?stit?tus

English

Etymology

From Middle English helples, from Old English *helpl?as (“helpless”) from Proto-Germanic *help?lausaz, equivalent to help +? -less. Compare Dutch hulpeloos (“helpless”), German hilflos (“helpless”), Swedish hjälplös (“helpless”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?h?lpl?s/
• Hyphenation: help?less

Adjective

helpless (comparative more helpless, superlative most helpless)

1. Unable to defend oneself.
   • 1995, Bryan Adams, Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?

     Then when you find yourself lyin' helpless in her arms

     You know you really love a woman

2. Lacking help; powerless.
3. Unable to act without help; needing help; feeble.
4. Uncontrollable.

   a helpless urge

5. (obsolete) From which there is no possibility of being saved.

   • For, while they fly that gulf's devouring jawes,
     They on the rock are rent and sunck in helplesse wawes.

Derived terms

• helplessly
• helplessness

Translations

Further reading

• helpless in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• helpless in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.