aid

noun

1. (uncountable)Help; assistance; succor, relief.

   “He came to my aid when I was foundering.”

   “An unconstitutional method of obtaining aid.”

   ““[…] 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.””

   “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.”

2. (countable)A helper; an assistant.

   “It is not good that man should bee alone, let vs make vnto him an aide like to himselfe.”

3. (countable)Something which helps; a material source of help.

   “Slimming aids include dietary supplements and appetite suppressants.”

   “The human is so poorly designed for aquatic adventures that he cannot even see in the water without artificial aids.”

   “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.”

4. (British, countable)An historical subsidy granted to the crown by Parliament for an extraordinary purpose, such as a war effort.

   “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.”

5. (British, countable)An exchequer loan.
6. (countable)A pecuniary tribute paid by a vassal to his feudal lord on special occasions.
7. (alt-of, alternative, countable)Alternative form of aide (“an aide-de-camp”).

   “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.”

8. (countable, in-plural)The rider's use of hands, legs, voice, etc. to control the horse.
9. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, uncountable)Initialism of artificial insemination by donor.

   “Here is the first book to thoroughly look at topics such as the social and personal aspects of lesbian motherhood; the implications of AID; and how children feel about growing up with lesbian mothers.”

verb

1. (transitive)To provide support to; to further the progress of; to help; to assist.

   “You speedy helpers […] Appear and aid me in this enterprise.”

   “Smith is aided in his quest by an elfin, time-jumping alien with psychic powers played by another Coen brothers veteran, A Serious Man star Michael Stuhlbarg.”

2. To climb with the use of aids such as pitons.

   “Rather than climb into a bottomless off-width crack, we aided an 80-foot A2 to A3 crack to the top of a pedestal. By very tenuous face climbing, we gained entry to the crack, which we followed to a tree beneath the big chimney.”

name

1. (abbreviation, acronym, alt-of)Acronym of Agency for International Development.

   “The first such title, according to a review by Christopher Sagers, a law professor at Cleveland–Marshall College of Law, was the 1950 Act for International Development, or AID.”