a. and sb. [ad. L. auxiliārius, f. auxili-um help: see -ARY1.]
A. adj. Const. to.
1. Helpful, assistant, affording aid, rendering assistance, giving support or succor.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. viii. § 2. Mixed [mathematics] hath for subject some … parts of natural philosophy, and considereth quantity determined, as it is auxiliary and incident unto them.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 11. Calling upon the auxiliary name of Jesus to help her well home.
1857. Buckle, Civiliz., ii. 108. In a well-balanced mind, the imagination and the understanding … are auxiliary to each other.
esp. b. in warfare. See B. 2.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 404. To send unto him auxiliarie souldiers.
1862. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), VII. lvi. 109. Two auxiliary cohorts were cut to pieces.
c. in Grammar: see B. 3. Formerly applied to any formative or subordinate elements of language, e.g., prefixes, prepositions; cf. AUXILIAR sb.
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 282. Expressing the auxiliary Particles of the English language, by distinct points and places about the radical or integral words.
1750. Harris, Hermes (1841), 178.
1762. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, V. xliii. 146. The verbs auxiliary … are, am, was, have, had, do, did, make, [etc.].
1834. Southey, Doctor, 1. Our auxiliary verbs give us a power which the ancients, with all their varieties of mood, and inflections of tense, never could attain.
2. Subsidiary to the ordinary, additional.
a. 1687. Petty, Pol. Arith., ii. (1691), 49. Auxiliary Seamen, are such as have another Trade besides, wherewith to maintain themselves, when they are not employed at Sea.
1869. Sir E. Reed, Ship-build., ii. 43. To employ side-keels, which are known as ‘drift-keels,’ ‘auxiliary keels,’ ‘bilge-keels.’
1877. Sir C. W. Thomson, Voy. Challenger, II. i. 14. There is an auxiliary eye on each of the maxillæ of the second pair.
b. Music. (See quot.)
1864. Webster, Auxiliary scales, the six keys or scales, consisting of any key major, with its relative minor, and the relative keys of each.
1873. Banister, Music, § 225–6. Auxiliary notes are notes one degree above or below essential or unessential notes, preceding such notes, either with or before the accompanying harmony…. The Appoggiatura, Acciaccatura, &c., are examples of such notes.
B. sb.
1. One who renders help or gives assistance; a helper, assistant, confederate, ally; also, that which gives help, a source or means of assistance.
1656. Cowley, Davideis, IV. Wks. 1710, II. 439. He Rains and Winds for Auxiliaries brought.
1660. Jer. Taylor, Duct. Dubit., I. ii. Wks. IX. 79. Suspected to take in auxiliaries from the spirits of darkness.
1769. Robertson, Chas. V., V. II. 250. The appearance of such a vigorous auxiliary … was at first matter of great joy to Luther.
1862. Marsh, Eng. Lang., iv. 67. A knowledge of certain other languages is a highly useful auxiliary in the study of our own.
2. Mil. (usually in pl.) Foreign or allied troops in the service of a nation at war.
1601. R. Johnson, Kingd. & Commw., 193. They maintaine three sorts of soldiers … the third are Auxiliaries, which serue for pay.
1692. Dryden, St. Euremont’s Ess., 23. When Xantippus, a Lacedæmonian, arrived with a Body of Auxiliaries.
1862. Merivale, Hist. Rom. Emp. (1865), VII. lvi. 109. A Gaul and a Roman happened to challenge one another to wrestle; the legionary fell, the auxiliary mocked him.
3. Gram. A verb used to form the tenses, moods, voices, etc., of other verbs.
They include auxiliaries of periphrasis, which assist in expressing the interrogative, negative and emphatic forms of speech, viz. do (did); auxiliaries of tense, have, be, shall, will; of mood, may, should, would; of voice, be; of predication (i.e., vbs. of incomplete predication which require a verbal complement), can, must, ought, need, also shall, will, may, when not auxiliaries of tense or mood.
1762. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, V. xlii. 145. The use of the Auxiliaries.
1835. Penny Cycl., III. 160/1. After the verb to be, the next in importance among the auxiliaries is the verb to have.
1878. Morris & Bowen, Eng. Gram. Exerc. Prim., 70. In deciding whether a verb is an auxiliary or not, it is necessary to decide whether it marks the time or the manner of action of another verb, or whether it makes the subject, or thing spoken of, the doer or sufferer of the action. If it does none of these things, then it is no auxiliary.
4. Math. A quantity introduced for the purpose of simplifying or facilitating some operation, as in equations or trigonometrical formulæ.
