Aux*il"ia*ry [L. auxiliarius, fr. auxilium help, aid, fr. augere to increase.]

Conferring aid or help; helping; aiding; assisting; subsidiary; as auxiliary troops.

Auxiliary scales Mus., the scales of relative or attendant keys. See under Attendant, a. -- Auxiliary verbs Gram.. See Auxiliary, n., 3.

 

© Webster 1913.


Aux*il"ia*ry, n.; pl. Auxiliaries ().

1.

A helper; an assistant; a confederate in some action or enterprise.

2. Mil. pl.

Foreign troops in the service of a nation at war; (rarely in sing.), a member of the allied or subsidiary force.

3. Gram.

A verb which helps to form the voices, modes, and tenses of other verbs; -- called, also, an auxiliary verb; as, have, be, may, can, do, must, shall, and will, in English; etre and avoir, in French; avere and essere, in Italian; estar and haber, in Spanish.

4. Math.

A quantity introduced for the purpose of simplifying or facilitating some operation, as in equations or trigonometrical formulae.

Math. Dict.

 

© Webster 1913.

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