AUXILIARY

a. n.

5 definitions — Webster’s Dictionary (1828)


1.
a.

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.

2.
n.

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

3.
n.

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

4.
n.

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; être and avoir, in French; avere and essere, in Italian; estar and haber, in Spanish.

5.
n.

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