"cannot help" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cannot help",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "could not help",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "cannot<cannot,-,could not,-> help"
      },
      "expansion": "cannot help (third-person singular simple present cannot help, no present participle, simple past could not help, no past participle)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "can't help"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1833, [Charles Lamb], “Preface. By a Friend of the Late Elia.”, in The Last Essays of Elia. […], London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page ix:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "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:",
          "text": "\"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;[…]\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "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:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1904, Edward Verrall Lucas, chapter 2, in Highways and Byways in Sussex:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1913, Sir Frederick Pollock, Robert Campbell, Oliver Augustus Saunders, The Revised Reports:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative form of can't help."
      ],
      "id": "en-cannot_help-en-verb-g~LZTjA6",
      "links": [
        [
          "can't help",
          "can't help#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative",
        "no-past-participle",
        "no-present-participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "cannot help"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cannot help",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "could not help",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "cannot<cannot,-,could not,-> help"
      },
      "expansion": "cannot help (third-person singular simple present cannot help, no present participle, simple past could not help, no past participle)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "can't help"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1833, [Charles Lamb], “Preface. By a Friend of the Late Elia.”, in The Last Essays of Elia. […], London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page ix:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "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:",
          "text": "\"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;[…]\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "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:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1904, Edward Verrall Lucas, chapter 2, in Highways and Byways in Sussex:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1913, Sir Frederick Pollock, Robert Campbell, Oliver Augustus Saunders, The Revised Reports:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative form of can't help."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "can't help",
          "can't help#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative",
        "no-past-participle",
        "no-present-participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "cannot help"
}