SUPERNUMERARY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • 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

... arms and waited, their breath rising like a fog on the frozen air. Their two tall ranks made a wall before us, shutting out all view of the lights in the valley. The short or supernumerary line of non-commissioned officers on our right stood motionless as a row ...

— The Adventures of Harry Revel • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... mistaken her match, and given him so much odds that he can easily outrun her. He allows of no merit but that which is superabundant. All his actions are superfoetations, that either become monsters or twins; that is, too much, or the same again; for he is but a supernumerary and does nothing but for want of a better. He is a civil Catholic, that holds nothing more steadfastly than supererogation in all that he undertakes, for he undertakes nothing but what he overdoes. He is insatiable in all ...

— Character Writings of the 17th Century • Various

... It is well to know how far this taste will go. We believe that had these philosophers obstinately, against nature, persisted in the attempt, as some have unluckily for themselves, we should have lost two great philosophers, and have obtained two supernumerary poets.[B] ...

— Literary Character of Men of Genius - Drawn from Their Own Feelings and Confessions • Isaac D'Israeli

... and the renewed sense of power in handling men, while it consoled her wounded vanity, helped also to obscure the thought of the claim at which his manner hinted. He was a coarse dull man who, under all his show of authority, was a mere supernumerary in the costly show for which his money paid: surely, to a clever girl, it would be easy to hold him by his vanity, and so keep the obligation ...

— House of Mirth • Edith Wharton

... her of extravagance has been already refuted. Her private palace was furnished from the State lumber rooms, and what was purchased, paid for out of her savings. As for her favourites, she never had but two, and these were no supernumerary expense ...

— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre

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