Other forms: helplines
A helpline is a phone number to call when you need to talk. Ring the helpline, a national helpline, staff the helpline.
Most are run by charities and staffed by trained volunteers, and the good ones are free, confidential and open at night, since that is when people ring. A helpline is not the same as a customer service line, whatever companies call theirs.
1nounhelplineA phone number to call when you need to talk.
“If you are feeling alone, call the helpline and talk to someone.”
helpline is a service.
Help plus line, from the late twentieth century, on the pattern of hotline.
From help + line.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA