accessary Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun someone who helps another person commit a crime
    accessory.
  2. adjective satellite aiding and abetting in a crime
    accessory.
    • he was charged with being accessory to the crime

WordNet

Ac*ces"sa*ry adjective
Definitions
  1. Accompanying, as a subordinate; additional; accessory; esp., uniting in, or contributing to, a crime, but not as chief actor. See Accessory.
    To both their deaths thou shalt be accessary. Shak.
    Amongst many secondary and accessary causes that support monarchy, these are not of least reckoning. Milton.
Ac*ces"sa*ry noun
Etymology
Cf. Accessory and LL. accessarius.
Wordforms
plural Accessaries
Definitions
  1. (Law) One who, not being present, contributes as an assistant or instigator to the commission of an offense. ✍ This word, as used in law, is spelt accessory by Blackstone and many others; but in this sense is spelt accessary by Bouvier, Burrill, Burns, Whishaw, Dane, and the Penny Cyclopedia; while in other senses it is spelt accessory. In recent text-books on criminal law the distinction is not preserved, the spelling being either accessary or accessory.

Webster 1913