Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Wiktionary
n. A military officer who serves as an adjutant to a higher ranking officer, prince or other high political dignitary.
WordNet
n. an officer who acts as military assistant to a more senior officer [syn: adjutant, aide]
[also: aides-de-camp (pl)]
Wikipedia
An aide-de-camp ( or ; French expression meaning literally helper in the [military] camp) is a personal assistant or secretary to a person of high rank, usually a senior military, police or government officer, a member of a royal family, or a head of state. This is not to be confused with an adjutant, who is the senior administrator of a military unit. The first aide-de-camp is typically the foremost personal aide.
In some countries, the aide-de-camp is considered to be a title of honour (which confers the post-nominal letters ADC or A de C), and participates at ceremonial functions.
The badge of office for an aide-de-camp is usually the aiguillette, a braided cord in gold or other colours, worn on the shoulder of a uniform. Whether it is worn on the left or the right shoulder is dictated by protocol.
Usage examples of "aide-de-camp".
Sidney Huff and a lieutenant colonel carrying a briefcase and wearing the aiguillette of an aide-de-camp came in and stood by the door.
The aide-de-camp of Calvin and Theodore de Beze contrasted admirably with the son of the furrier.
General Franceschetti and his aide-de-camp Campana were able to accomplish the jump in the same way, and all three went rapidly down to the sea through the little wood which lay within a hundred yards of the shore, and which hid them for a few moments from their enemies.
I accompanied the aide-de-camp, and introduced him to the captain who received him with the joy of a soldier meeting a comrade.
Ian Rullock, acting for the moment as aide-de-camp, had spent the day on horseback.
A corpulent Dutchman with spectacles and a silk umbrella was the head serang of the place, and after him trotted his aide-de-camp, a little brown Malay carrying a sword.
As aide-de-camp to Lord Sterling, with the rank of major, he served in the campaign of 1777 and 1778, and distinguished himself in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth.
In 1812 Clausewitz, with several other Prussian officers, having entered the Russian service, his first appointment was as Aide-de-camp to General Phul.
He was accompanied by ecclesiastics, by men well versed in the language of the Incas and in their administrative policy, and by his secretary and aide-de-camp.
In spite of his Whiggism, he was respectable enough to be made colonel of his regiment and an aide-de-camp to the King.
The two men in the barouches made themselves known to the Special Commissary of the station, to whom the aide-de-camp Fleury spoke privately.
I accompanied the aide-de-camp, and introduced him to the captain who received him with the joy of a soldier meeting a comrade.
Having sent my aide-de-camp before me with this message and instructions to request from the Prince Regent passports to America, on Bastille Day I put myself and my entourage in the hands of Commander Maitland aboard the Bellerophon and left France.
During this last stay in the army I made an encounter of inestimable value: I took a young tribune named Celer, to whom I was attached, as my aide-de-camp.
He hated to send a General to do a Lieutenant's job, but—with Nicomoth on his way to Tarr-Hostigos with a dispatch to Rylla chronicling their victory over the Harphaxi—the Count was his acting aide-de-camp.