aid
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /eɪd/
rhymes: -eɪd
homophone: aide
Forms: form: aids
form: aide
form: ayde
Etymology: From Middle English aide, eide, ayde, from Old French eide, aide, from aidier, from Latin adiūtō, adiūtāre (“to assist, help”). Cognates include Spanish ayuda, Portuguese ajuda and Italian aiuto.
Senses: examples: text: He came to my aid when I was foundering.
text: An unconstitutional method of obtaining aid.
ref: 1827, Henry Hallam, The Constitutional History of England from the Accession of Henry VII. to the Death of George II. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, […], →OCLC:
text: “[…] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons ! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”
ref: 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: Musk said he checked with Trump “a few times” and Trump confirmed he wants to shut down the agency, which dispenses billions in humanitarian aid and development funding annually.
ref: 2025 February 2, Jennifer Hansler and Alex Marquardt, “Senior USAID security officials put on leave after attempting to refuse Musk’s DOGE access to agency systems”, in CNN:
glosses: Help; assistance; succor, relief.
examples: text: It is not good that man should bee alone, let vs make vnto him an aide like to himselfe.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Tobit 8:6:
glosses: A helper; an assistant.
examples: text: Slimming aids include dietary supplements and appetite suppressants.
text: The human is so poorly designed for aquatic adventures that he cannot even see in the water without artificial aids.
ref: 1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 16:
text: The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone[…]. Scribes, illuminators, and scholars held such stones directly over manuscript pages as an aid in seeing what was being written, drawn, or read.
ref: 2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist:
glosses: Something which helps; a material source of help.
examples: text: In this parliament was granted to the king for defence against the Scots two aids and two quindecims, the which two aids did not extend over two quindecims.
ref: 2019, Julia Boffey, Henry VII's London in the Great Chronicle, page 71:
glosses: An historical subsidy granted to the crown by Parliament for an extraordinary purpose, such as a war effort.
glosses: An exchequer loan.
topics: law
glosses: A pecuniary tribute paid by a vassal to his feudal lord on special occasions.
examples: text: Suddenly, the general's aid entered the room and walked in a straight line, coming to a halt in front of the desk, standing at attention, waiting for the general to recognize him, allowing the aid to speak.
ref: Robert Michael Wills, They Came from the Drain (page 206)
glosses: Alternative form of aide (“an aide-de-camp”).
topics: hobbies
horse-racing
horseracing
horses
lifestyle
pets
racing
sports
glosses: The rider's use of hands, legs, voice, etc. to control the horse.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: aid climbing
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: aid-de-camp
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: aid dog
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: aidful
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: aidless
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: aid-major
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: aidman
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: aid package
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: aid station
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: aidwashing
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: aid worker
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: band-aid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: buoyancy aid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: come to someone's aid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: deaf aid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: development aid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: first aid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: foreign aid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: grant-in-aid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: hearing aid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: impact aid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: in aid of
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: job aid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: kool-aid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: ladies' aid society
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: legal aid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: marital aid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: Medicaid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: navaid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: nonaid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: penetration aid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: pray in aid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: rinse aid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: sex aid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: sleep aid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: soldiers' aid society
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: state aid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: subaid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: teaching aid
sense: Terms derived from aid (noun)
word: visual aid