Dictionary

cannot help en · VERB

Meanings

1. (alt-of, alternative, no-past-participle, no-present-participle) Alternative form of can't help.
   alt of can't help
   • even their arch-enemy the gamekeeper is beginning reluctantly, but gradually, to acquiesce in the general belief of their innocence and utility, I cannot help indulging the hope that this bird will eventually meet with that general encouragement and protection to which its eminent services so richly entitle it. 1904, Edward Verrall Lucas, chapter 2, in Highways and Byways in Sussex:
   • Yarmouth […] looked rather spongey and soppy, I thought, as I carried my eye over the great dull waste that lay across the river; and I could not help wondering, if the world were really as round as my geography-book said, how any part of it came to be so flat. 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, “I have a Change”, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 21:
   • "Well, my love, that is all very true," replied Louisa, colouring with the consciousness of being a great monopolist; "but I cannot help fearing more pain will arise to you eventually than the pleasure is worth;[…]" 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 214:
   • He never greatly cared for the society of what are called good people. If any of these were scandalised (and offences were sure to arise), he could not help it. 1833, [Charles Lamb], “Preface. By a Friend of the Late Elia.”, in The Last Essays of Elia. […], London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page ix:
   • It may be that the jury in this case have misapplied the rule laid down by this Court, but not in favour of the defendants. I cannot help thinking they might well have held the watercourse to be the true boundary line between the two properties. 1913, Sir Frederick Pollock, Robert Campbell, Oliver Augustus Saunders, The Revised Reports:

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