SUPERNUMERARY • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Supernumerary

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noun

Supernumerary n. (pl. supernumeraries)

A person or thing beyond the number stated.

A person or thing beyond what is necessary or usual; especially, a person employed not for regular service, but only to fill the place of another in case of need; specifically, in theaters, a person who is not a regular actor, but is employed to appear in a stage spectacle.

adjective

Supernumerary adj.

Exceeding the number stated or prescribed; as, a supernumerary officer in a regiment.

Exceeding a necessary, usual, or required number or quality; superfluous; as, supernumerary addresses; supernumerary expense.

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Etymology of 'Supernumerary'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Supernumerary" Quotes from Famous Books

... man of the patrol had to be interviewed, and given minute instructions, also instructions for the arising of unforeseen circumstances, where individual initiative would require to be displayed. Then there were rations to be served out, and, finally, messengers must be sent to the supernumerary camp higher up the valley. But there was no undue bustle or haste. It ...

— The Law-Breakers • Ridgwell Cullum

... being on the threshold of inquiries, and proceeded to pop numerous questions to my neighbours. I ascertained, among other things, that the vessels are called "eights," owing to their containing nine passengers; that the ninth is called the "cock," and is a mere supernumerary or understudent, in case any member of the crew should be overcome by sickishness during the contest and desire ...

— Baboo Jabberjee, B.A. • F. Anstey

... the woman he had stolen. There we were—the rightful avenger, according to the code, and the supernumerary ...

— Whirligigs • O. Henry

... and amount, not merely the diet of the independent labourer, but that of the majority of the persons who contributed to their support. The farmer paid 10 s. in the pound in poor-rates, and was in addition compelled to employ supernumerary labourers not required on his farm, at a cost of from 100 l. to 250 l. a year; the labourer had no need to hasten himself to seek work, or to please his master, or to put a restraint upon his temper, having all the slave's security for support, without the slave's liability ...

— The Land-War In Ireland (1870) - A History For The Times • James Godkin

... old gentleman, still motionless, looking vacantly at the wall. The old Duke saw no Mount Ararat rising from the troubled waters; all that made life worth living for him had passed away, and he lagged superfluous on the stage; a supernumerary with a pasteboard coronet; laughed at and ranted about in the pantomime at which the world ...

— The King's Men - A Tale of To-morrow • Robert Grant, John Boyle O'Reilly, J. S. Dale, and John T.

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