succour
/ˈsʌkə
/(US succor)
noun [mass noun]
1Assistance and support in times of hardship and distress: the wounded had little chance of succour...
- Victims' families had no protection, no succour or support.
- For Maud Martha, the house serves dual roles as the site of both her distress and her succor.
- These newcomers earned their living as small businessmen, religious teachers or labourers and were later to provide succour and support for the third wave of Indonesian migration to Thailand.
Synonyms
aid, help, a helping hand, assistance;
ministration, comfort, ease, relief, support, guidance, backing
rare easement
1.1 (succours) archaic Reinforcements of troops.The barbarians who had defended Gaul refused to march to the relief of Italy; and the succours promised by the Eastern emperor were distant and doubtful....
- Errors, indeed, prevail by the assistance of foreign and borrowed succors.
verb [with object]
Give assistance or aid to: prisoners of war were liberated and succoured...
- They turned up quickly at the explosion site and helped crucially in succouring victims and in maintaining the integrity for forensic investigatory purposes of that scene of rare and serious crime.
- A major initiative aimed at supporting and succouring rural Yorkshire communities devastated by foot-and-mouth is to be launched by the Church of England.
- Hawker's published version accords him a heroic role in retrieving and burying all the Caledonia's dead and succouring her one survivor.
Synonyms
help, aid, bring aid to, give help to, give/render assistance to, assist, lend a (helping) hand to, be of service to;
minister to, care for, comfort, bring comfort to, bring relief to, support, be supportive of, sustain, protect, take care of, look after, attend to, serve, wait on
Derivatives
succourless
- Such miserable events are of rare occurrence, but show how open, wild, and succourless the country still remains.
- Time was when Bhagatji used to go about seeking shelterless, succourless people, for care.
- Then, in the distance, it appeared - a beacon of food in a succorless landscape.
Origin
Middle English: via Old French from medieval Latin succursus, from Latin succurrere 'run to the help of', from sub- 'from below' + currere 'run'.