Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Assist

Assist ({not transcribed}) , transitive verb

[Latin assistere; ad + sistere to cause to stand, to stand, from stare to stand: compare French assister. See Stand.]

To give support to in some undertaking or effort, or in time of distress; to help; to aid; to succor.
Assist me, knight. I am undone! — Shakespeare

Assist , intransitive verb

1.
To lend aid; to help.
With God not parted from him, as was feared, But favoring and assisting to the end. — Milton
2.
To be present as a spectator; as, to assist at a public meeting. [A Gallicism] — Gibbon. Prescott