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ASSISTANT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A person who contributes to the fulfillment of a need or furtherance of an effort or purpose
Example:
they hired additional help to finish the work
Synonyms:
assistant; help; helper; supporter
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("assistant" is a kind of...):
worker (a person who works at a specific occupation)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "assistant"):
whipper-in (huntsman's assistant in managing the hounds)
water boy; waterer (an assistant who supplies drinking water)
foot soldier; subordinate; subsidiary; underling (an assistant subject to the authority or control of another)
sidesman ((Church of England) an assistant to the churchwarden; collects offerings of money in the church)
secretarial assistant; secretary (an assistant who handles correspondence and clerical work for a boss or an organization)
chief assistant; man Friday; right-hand man (the most helpful assistant)
prompter; theater prompter (someone who assists a performer by providing the next words of a forgotten speech)
powder monkey (someone who carries explosives (as from the magazine to the guns on board a warship))
paraprofessional (a trained worker who is not a member of a profession but who assists a professional)
model; poser (a person who poses for a photographer or painter or sculptor)
fashion model; manakin; manikin; mannequin; mannikin; model (a woman who wears clothes to display fashions)
underboss (an assistant or second-in-command to a chief (especially in a crime syndicate))
birthing coach; doula; labor coach; monitrice (an assistant (often the father of the soon-to-be-born child) who provides support for a woman in labor by encouraging her to use techniques learned in childbirth-preparation classes)
cat's-paw; instrument; pawn (a person used by another to gain an end)
enforcer; hatchet man (one whose job it is to execute unpleasant tasks for a superior)
girl Friday (a female assistant who has a range of duties)
flower girl (a young girl who carries flowers in a (wedding) procession)
facilitator (someone who makes progress easier)
event planner (someone who plans social events as a profession (usually for government or corporate officials))
actor's assistant; dresser (a wardrobe assistant for an actor)
deputy; lieutenant (an assistant with power to act when his superior is absent)
dental assistant (an assistant to a dentist)
bat boy ((baseball) a boy who takes care of bats and other baseball equipment)
attendant; attender; tender (someone who waits on or tends to or attends to the needs of another)
aide; auxiliary (someone who acts as assistant)
accomplice; confederate (a person who joins with another in carrying out some plan (especially an unethical or illegal plan))
coadjutor (an assistant to a bishop)
Derivation:
assist (act as an assistant in a subordinate or supportive function)
assist (give help or assistance; be of service)
assistant (of or relating to a person who is subordinate to another)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Of or relating to a person who is subordinate to another
Synonyms:
adjunct; assistant
Classified under:
Similar:
low-level; subordinate (lower in rank or importance)
Derivation:
assist (act as an assistant in a subordinate or supportive function)
assistant (a person who contributes to the fulfillment of a need or furtherance of an effort or purpose)
Context examples:
"Yes, I will, as your assistant," I answered.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
"Now you have been good children, and I'll play anything you like," says Meg, as she leads her assistant cooks upstairs, when the pudding is safely bouncing in the pot.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
“And pray, what did you mean by that, sir?” demanded Mr. Creakle, turning angrily on his assistant.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
A physician assistant may take medical histories, do physical exams, take blood and urine samples, care for wounds, and give injections and immunizations.
(Physician assistant, NCI Dictionary)
A scope of physician assistant professional activity does not include the full range of interpretation of medical findings requiring the full professional background of the licensed physician.
(Physician assistant, NCI Thesaurus)
Tom Owen and his assistant, Fogo, with the help of the ring-keepers, plucked up the stakes and ropes, and carried them off across country.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“I will go and fetch him. He will be no bad assistant when it all comes out.”
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
But so blind is the experience of man that what I conceived to be the best assistants to my plan may have entirely destroyed it.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
To remain certified a physician assistant must log 100 hours of continuing medical education every two years and take the recertification exam every six years.
(Certified Physician Assistant, NCI Thesaurus)
The life of an assistant schoolmistress is sometimes trying.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
