godsend

Noun

godsend (plural godsends)

1. An instance of unexpected benefit or good fortune; a windfall.
   • "You do, indeed, seem to take it to heart!" exclaimed the actress, an expression of jealous anger crossing her features; "why, it is quite a God-send for you! many a heart is caught in the rebound.[…]"1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A Discovery”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 207
   • [O]nce again, as in 1803, we were on the brink of being sacrificed to the very lunacies of retrenchment. By a mere god-send, more troops happened to arrive from the Indian continent.1843 November, Thomas De Quincey, “Ceylon”, in Speculations Literary and Philosophic: With German Tales and Other Narrative Papers (De Quincey’s Works; XII), London: James Hogg & Sons, →OCLC, page 27
   1. (UK, archaic, regional, specifically) The wreck of a ship which has washed up on shore, from which cargo, timber, etc., may be obtained.
      • Its seldom sic [such] rich Godsends come on our coast—no since the Jenny and James came ashore in King Charlie's time.1822, [Walter Scott], chapter VII, in The Pirate. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 183
      • But Biddy knew what's what, and she knew that Jack was the man for a woman who wished to be comfortable and happy; for, to say nothing of the fish, Jack had the supplying of half the gentlemen's houses of the country with the Godsends that came into the bay.1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 528
2. A person who provides greatly needed assistance.