Definition of "holp" [holp]

• Archaic A past tense of help. (verb)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Just as genes and organisms undergo natural selection, words—specifically, irregular verbs such as “holp” that do not take an -ed ending in the past tense—are subject to powerful pressure to “regularize” as the language develops."
• "Is that odd-looking “holp” an archaic word or a spelling mistake?"
• "In turns out that “holp” was the past tense of “help” when Shakespeare wrote these words sometime between 1589 and 1594."