cannot help

English

Verb

cannot help (third-person singular simple present cannot help, no present participle, simple past could not help, no past participle)

1. Alternative form of can't help.
   • 1833, [Charles Lamb], “Preface. By a Friend of the Late Elia.”, in The Last Essays of Elia. […], London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page ix:

     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.

   • 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:

     "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; […]"

   • 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:

     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.

   • 1904, Edward Verrall Lucas, chapter 2, in Highways and Byways in Sussex:

     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.

   • 1913, Sir Frederick Pollock, Robert Campbell, Oliver Augustus Saunders, The Revised Reports:

     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.