auxiliary

Pluralauxiliaries

1. 1
   adjective

   Providing help, assistance, or support to someone or something else.

   The general called up auxiliary troops to reinforce the front line.

   Auxiliary staff handle check-in so the nurses can focus on their patients.

   Similarancillary, accessory

   Note

   The sense the others grow from: Latin auxilium meant "help," and it comes from augēre, "to increase"; help as whatever adds to your strength. An auxiliārius was an assistant or ally, and the ally is still visible in auxiliary troops, soldiers who fight in support of a main army. It names a role, not a degree, so nothing is more auxiliary than something else.

2. 2
   adjective

   Added as a supplement to something, or secondary to something more important.

   The university opened an auxiliary campus to handle its growing enrollment.

   The report comes with auxiliary tables for readers who want the raw figures.

   Similarsupplementary, additional, secondary, extra

   Oppositemain, primary

3. 3
   volunteer groupnouncountable

   A person or group that serves in a helping or supporting role.

   The hospital auxiliary raised money for a new children's ward.

   Police auxiliaries directed traffic along the marathon route.

   Note

   Beyond helpers and support groups, the noun also covers supporting equipment. A diesel locomotive's auxiliaries are the machines that serve it, such as air compressors and brake exhausters, and a winter sports area needs auxiliaries such as chair lifts. The word has lately stretched to AI as well, when someone leans on it to help them talk to a friend.

4. 4
   backupadjective

   Kept in reserve and brought into use only in exceptional circumstances.

   An auxiliary power unit keeps the lights on if the main supply fails.

   The city maintains an auxiliary reservoir for droughts and other emergencies.

   Similarbackup, spare

   Oppositemain, primary

5. 5
   grammar wordnounabbreviationellipsis

   Short for auxiliary verb.

   To form a question, English moves the auxiliary to the front: Has she left?

   Some learners drop the auxiliary and say "She going" instead of "She is going."

   Note

   Grammarians drop the verb and speak simply of the auxiliary, often naming each one by the job it does. Perfective have marks a completed action (they have gone), progressive be an action under way (she is leaving), and passive be a clause turned around (the door was left open). Between them they carry aspect and voice, while the main verb carries the meaning.

6. 6
   in grammaradjective

   Relating to an auxiliary verb, the kind of verb that works alongside a main verb.

   In "She has left," the verb has plays an auxiliary role.

   The grammar course spends a full week on the auxiliary uses of do.

   Note

   The adjective names the job a verb is doing in a clause, not a fixed class of word. Have is a main verb in she has a car but plays an auxiliary role in she has left; do is main in do your homework and auxiliary in do you agree? The test is whether another verb beside it carries the meaning.

7. 7
   nouncountable

   A sailing vessel that is also fitted with an engine.

   The old schooner was refitted as an auxiliary, with a diesel engine below deck.

   When the wind died, the auxiliary motored the last few miles into port.

8. 8
   with an engineadjective

   Of a ship, fitted with an engine as well as sails.

   They chartered an auxiliary ketch that could motor through calm stretches.

   The auxiliary cutter ran its engine through the narrow channel, then raised its sails.

   Note

   Here the word turns the engine into the helper: the vessel is built to sail, and the motor is kept for calms, harbors and narrow channels. The adjective sits before the name of the rig (an auxiliary ketch, an auxiliary cutter) and the vessel itself can be called simply an auxiliary.

9. 9
   color guardnouncountable

   The color guard of a marching band, the members who perform alongside the musicians without playing instruments.

   The auxiliary spun their flags in time with the drums during the halftime show.

   She played clarinet for two years before joining the band's auxiliary.

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