Word.ws English Dictionary

answer the helm

answer the helm verb: to respond to a movement of the helm by changing direction; only happens if the ship has steerageway.

Verb

answer the helm (third-person singular simple present answers the helm, present participle answering the helm, simple past and past participle answered the helm)

  1. (intransitive) To respond to a movement of the helm by changing direction; only happens if the ship has steerageway.

Forms of answer the helm

third-person singular presentanswers the helm
present participleanswering the helm
past participleanswered the helm
pastanswered the helm

Questions about answer the helm

What does answer the helm mean?
Answer the helm means to respond to a movement of the helm by changing direction; only happens if the ship has steerageway.
What part of speech is answer the helm?
Answer the helm is a verb.
What is the past tense of answer the helm?
The past tense of answer the helm is answered the helm.

Words near answer the helm in the dictionary

  1. answer someone's prayers
  2. answer song
  3. answer songs
  4. answer the call
  5. answer the call of nature
  6. answer the helm
  7. answer to
  8. answer to someone's prayers
  9. answer up
  10. answer'd
  11. answerabilities

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: answer the helm (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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