subsidiary

From Middle French subsidiaire, from Latin subsidiarius (“belonging to a reserve”).

• IPA^(key): /sʌbˈsɪ.di.əɹ.i/, /sʌbˈsɪ.dəɹ.i/, /sʌbˈsɪ.dʒəɹ.i/

subsidiary (comparative more subsidiary, superlative most subsidiary)

1. Auxiliary or supplemental.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Florio

     chief ruler and principal head everywhere, not suffragant and subsidiary

   • (Can we date this quote?) Samuel Taylor Coleridge

     They constituted a useful subsidiary testimony of another state of existence.

2. Secondary or subordinate.

   a subsidiary stream

   • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 5, in Death on the Centre Court:

     By one o'clock the place was choc-a-bloc. […] The restaurant was packed, and the promenade between the two main courts and the subsidiary courts was thronged with healthy-looking youngish people, drawn to the Mecca of tennis from all parts of the country.

3. Of, or relating to a subsidy.

   subsidiary payments to an ally

   • (Can we date this quote?) Lord Mahon

     George the Second relied on his subsidiary treaties.

subsidiary (plural subsidiaries)

1. A company owned by a parent company or a holding company, also called daughter company or sister company.
2. (music) A subordinate theme.
3. One who aids or supplies; an assistant.