Adjacent Words

Subsidiary definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SUBSID'IARY, a. [L. subsidiarius. See Subsidy.]
1. Aiding; assistant; furnishing help. Subsidiary troops are troops of one nation hired by another for military service.
2. Furnishing additional supplies; as a subsidiary stream.
SUBSID'IARY, n. An assistant; an auxiliary; he or that which contributes aid or additional supplies.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: functioning in a supporting capacity; "the main library and its auxiliary branches" [syn: auxiliary, subsidiary, supplemental, supplementary] n
1: an assistant subject to the authority or control of another [syn: subordinate, subsidiary, underling, foot soldier]
2: a company that is completely controlled by another company [syn: subsidiary company, subsidiary]

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Etymology: Latin subsidiarius, from subsidium reserve troops Date: 1543 1. a. furnishing aid or support ; auxiliary <subsidiary details> b. of secondary importance <a subsidiary stream> 2. of, relating to, or constituting a subsidy <a subsidiary payment to an ally> • subsidiarily adverb II. noun (plural -aries) Date: 1603 one that is subsidiary; especially a company wholly controlled by another

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & n. --adj. 1 serving to assist or supplement; auxiliary. 2 (of a company) controlled by another. 3 (of troops): a paid for by subsidy. b hired by another nation. --n. (pl. -ies) 1 a subsidiary thing or person; an accessory. 2 a subsidiary company. Derivatives: subsidiarily adv. subsidiarity n. Etymology: L subsidiarius (as SUBSIDY)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Subsidiary Sub*sid"i*a*ry, a. [L. subsidiarius: cf. F. subsidiaire. See Subsidy.] 1. Furnishing aid; assisting; auxiliary; helping; tributary; especially, aiding in an inferior position or capacity; as, a subsidiary stream. Chief ruler and principal head everywhere, not suffragant and subsidiary. --Florio. They constituted a useful subsidiary testimony of another state of existence. --Coleridge. 2. Of or pertaining to a subsidy; constituting a subsidy; being a part of, or of the nature of, a subsidy; as, subsidiary payments to an ally. George the Second relied on his subsidiary treaties. --Ld. Mahon.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Subsidiary Sub*sid"i*a*ry, n.; pl. Subsidiaries. One who, or that which, contributes aid or additional supplies; an assistant; an auxiliary. --Hammond.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(subsidiaries) 1. A subsidiary or a subsidiary company is a company which is part of a larger and more important company. (BUSINESS) ...British Asia Airways, a subsidiary of British Airways. N-COUNT: oft N of n, N n 2. If something is subsidiary, it is less important than something else with which it is connected. The economics ministry has increasingly played a subsidiary role to the finance ministry. = secondary ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Assistant, auxiliary, aiding, helping, adjuvant, corroborative, co-operating, subservient.

Moby Thesaurus

accessory, accident, accidental, addendum, addition, additional, adjunct, adjuvant, adscititious, adventitious, ancillary, appendage, appurtenance, appurtenant, ascititious, assistant, assisting, auxiliary, casual, circumstantial, collateral, contingency, contingent, contributory, dotal, dower, dowered, dowry, endowed, extra, fortuitous, fostering, happenstance, helping, incidental, inessential, instrumental, invested, mere chance, ministerial, ministering, ministrant, minor, nonessential, not-self, nurtural, nutricial, other, pensionary, secondary, serving, stipendiary, subordinate to, subservient, superadded, superaddition, superfluous, supervenient, supplement, supplemental, supplementary, tributary, unessential