Definition of "helpless"

Then when you find yourself lyin' helpless in her armsYou know you really love a woman

1995, Bryan Adams, Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?

Rana Thanoptis: Are we good? Can I go?Shepard: You conducted brutal experiments on helpless test subjects. You helped Saren. You don't get to live.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, PC, scene: FTL Drive Codex entry

A gaoler struck him, pushing him back in place in the hopeless, helpless line of prisoners.

1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 41

For, while they fly that gulf's devouring jawes,They on the rock are rent and sunck in helplesse wawes.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie