"cannot help but" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cannot help but",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "could not help but",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "cannot<cannot,-,could not,-> help but"
      },
      "expansion": "cannot help but (third-person singular simple present cannot help but, no present participle, simple past could not help but, no past participle)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "cannot but"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English negative polarity items",
          "parents": [
            "Negative polarity items",
            "Terms by semantic function"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1991, Robert C. Linthicum, City of God, City of Satan, page 64:",
          "text": "As we drove at breakneck speed through the streets, I could not help but be overwhelmed by the gaunt and desperate faces of the people, the endless squatter settlements of cheek-by-jowl, single-room shacks surrounded by ankle-deep mud, and the occasional glimpses of the rich apparently oblivious to the suffering around them.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1993, Rikki Ducornet, The Jade Cabinet, Dalkey Archive Press, page 109:",
          "text": "Radulph could not help but notice how the breasts of a lady flugelhornist trembled whenever she blew into her instrument.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Ari Elon, Naomi M. Hyman, Arthur Waskow, Trees, Earth, and Torah, page 414:",
          "text": "Standing on top of Trash Mountain (our local megadump) and affirming the Messianic promise of the kingdom of heaven, we cannot help but take responsibility for recycling and reducing consumption.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Ilan Kapoor, The Postcolonial Politics of Development, Routledge, →ISBN, page 69:",
          "text": "I cannot help but follow such panopticism to its ultimate conclusion: a Nineteen Eighty-Four scenario.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, John Tehranian, Whitewashed: America's Invisible Middle Eastern Minority, page 17:",
          "text": "One cannot help but wonder whether the concerns ultimately had root in the presence of a diminutive, pileous, and swarthy Mediterranean atop a military vehicle, instead of our accepted Anglo-Saxon image of leadership and might.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Sydney Bauer, Alibi, page 103:",
          "text": "The first thing Joe noticed was the seating arrangements — Katz at the head of the long antique cherry wood table, John Nagoshi to his right, Peter Nagoshi next to his father (and Joe could not help but study the younger Nagoshhi as he entered the room, his smooth expressionless face barely turning to acknowledge their entrance), and across the table FBI Boston Field Office Special Agent in Charge Leo King and Special Agent Ned Jacobs — the Feeb's resident profiler.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative form of cannot but"
      ],
      "id": "en-cannot_help_but-en-verb-h5t3J17d",
      "links": [
        [
          "cannot but",
          "cannot but#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative",
        "no-past-participle",
        "no-present-participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "cannot help but"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cannot help but",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "could not help but",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "cannot<cannot,-,could not,-> help but"
      },
      "expansion": "cannot help but (third-person singular simple present cannot help but, no present participle, simple past could not help but, no past participle)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "cannot but"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English negative polarity items",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1991, Robert C. Linthicum, City of God, City of Satan, page 64:",
          "text": "As we drove at breakneck speed through the streets, I could not help but be overwhelmed by the gaunt and desperate faces of the people, the endless squatter settlements of cheek-by-jowl, single-room shacks surrounded by ankle-deep mud, and the occasional glimpses of the rich apparently oblivious to the suffering around them.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1993, Rikki Ducornet, The Jade Cabinet, Dalkey Archive Press, page 109:",
          "text": "Radulph could not help but notice how the breasts of a lady flugelhornist trembled whenever she blew into her instrument.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Ari Elon, Naomi M. Hyman, Arthur Waskow, Trees, Earth, and Torah, page 414:",
          "text": "Standing on top of Trash Mountain (our local megadump) and affirming the Messianic promise of the kingdom of heaven, we cannot help but take responsibility for recycling and reducing consumption.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Ilan Kapoor, The Postcolonial Politics of Development, Routledge, →ISBN, page 69:",
          "text": "I cannot help but follow such panopticism to its ultimate conclusion: a Nineteen Eighty-Four scenario.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, John Tehranian, Whitewashed: America's Invisible Middle Eastern Minority, page 17:",
          "text": "One cannot help but wonder whether the concerns ultimately had root in the presence of a diminutive, pileous, and swarthy Mediterranean atop a military vehicle, instead of our accepted Anglo-Saxon image of leadership and might.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Sydney Bauer, Alibi, page 103:",
          "text": "The first thing Joe noticed was the seating arrangements — Katz at the head of the long antique cherry wood table, John Nagoshi to his right, Peter Nagoshi next to his father (and Joe could not help but study the younger Nagoshhi as he entered the room, his smooth expressionless face barely turning to acknowledge their entrance), and across the table FBI Boston Field Office Special Agent in Charge Leo King and Special Agent Ned Jacobs — the Feeb's resident profiler.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative form of cannot but"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "cannot but",
          "cannot but#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative",
        "no-past-participle",
        "no-present-participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "cannot help but"
}