lend a hand
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To help or assist someone
Literally: give a hand
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Professional and amateur artists have all agreed to lend a hand in a bid to make this year's festival the seventh one of the best yet.
Please lend a hand I'm only a person won't you listen Oh oh oh!
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “lend a hand” mean?
To help or assist someone Literally: give a hand
Is “lend a hand” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.