aid

Universal Words noun, verb noun 1 [U] money, food, etc. that is sent to help countries in difficult situations: economic / humanitarian / emergency aid * An extra ｣10 million in foreign aid has been promised. * aid agencies (= organizations that provide help) * medical aid programmes seealsoFINANCIALAID, LEGALAID 2 [U] help that you need to perform a particular task: He was breathing only with the aid of a ventilator. * This job would be impossible without the aid of a computer. 3 [U] (formal) help that is given to a person: One of the station staff saw he was in difficulty and came to his aid (= helped him). seealsoFIRSTAID 4 [C] an object, a machine, a tool, etc. that you use to help you do sth: a hearing aid * Photographs make useful teaching aids. IDIOMS in aid of sth/sb (BrE) in order to help sb/sth: collecting money in aid of charity what's...in aid of? (BrE, spoken) used to ask why sth is happening: What's all this crying in aid of? verb ~ (sb/sth) (in sth / in doing sth)