auxiliary verb

American  

[awg-zil-yuh-ree vurb, -zil-uh-] / ɔgˈzɪl yə ri ˌvɜrb, -ˈzɪl ə- /

noun

Grammar.

1. a verb used before and together with certain forms of other verbs, such as infinitives or participles, to express distinctions of tense, duration, possibility, obligation, etc., as in I am listening, We have spoken, They can see, Did you go?

---

auxiliary verb British  

noun

1. a verb used to indicate the tense, voice, mood, etc, of another verb where this is not indicated by inflection, such as English will in he will go, was in he was eating and he was eaten, do in I do like you, etc

---

auxiliary verb Cultural  

1. A “helping” verb that modifies the main verb, as in “Gail can win,” “Gail did win,” “Gail could have won.” A question often begins with an auxiliary verb: “Did Gail win?” “Could Gail lose?” The various forms of the verbs can, have, is, and does frequently act as auxiliaries.

---

Etymology

Origin of auxiliary verb

First recorded in 1755–65

Example Sentences

The Verb Passive is nothing more than the Participle Passive joined to the Auxiliary Verb to be; as Indicative MOOD.

From A Short System of English Grammar For the Use of the Boarding School in Worcester (1759) by Bate, Henry

Now it is highly deserving of remark, that in the Anglo-Saxon there existed an Auxiliary Verb, “Beo, or Beonne, To Be,” which has been abandoned in the modern English.

From Philological Proofs of the Original Unity and Recent Origin of the Human Race by Johnes, Arthur James

The Auxiliary Verb is here very properly made use of; and it would be a great loss to English Poetry, if it were to be wholly laid aside.

From Letters Concerning Poetical Translations And Virgil's and Milton's Arts of Verse, &c. by Benson, William

As already noticed, the Anglo-Saxon Auxiliary Verb forms in numerous instances an important connecting link.

From Philological Proofs of the Original Unity and Recent Origin of the Human Race by Johnes, Arthur James

The Auxiliary Verb may probably be regarded as the most important part of Language.

From Philological Proofs of the Original Unity and Recent Origin of the Human Race by Johnes, Arthur James