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/əkwˈeɪntəns/ Listen

noun

Acquaintance n.

A state of being acquainted, or of having intimate, or more than slight or superficial, knowledge; personal knowledge gained by intercourse short of that of friendship or intimacy; as, I know the man; but have no acquaintance with him. "Contract no friendship, or even acquaintance, with a guileful man."

A person or persons with whom one is acquainted. "Montgomery was an old acquaintance of Ferguson." Note: In this sense the collective term acquaintance was formerly both singular and plural, but it is now commonly singular, and has the regular plural acquaintances.

To be of acquaintance, to be intimate.

To take acquaintance of or To take acquaintance with, to make the acquaintance of. (Obs.)

Synonyms: Familiarity; intimacy; fellowship; knowledge. Acquaintance, Familiarity, Intimacy. These words mark different degrees of closeness in social intercourse. Acquaintance arises from occasional intercourse; as, our acquaintance has been a brief one. We can speak of a slight or an intimate acquaintance. Familiarity is the result of continued acquaintance. It springs from persons being frequently together, so as to wear off all restraint and reserve; as, the familiarity of old companions. Intimacy is the result of close connection, and the freest interchange of thought; as, the intimacy of established friendship. "Our admiration of a famous man lessens upon our nearer acquaintance with him." "We contract at last such a familiarity with them as makes it difficult and irksome for us to call off our minds." "It is in our power to confine our friendships and intimacies to men of virtue."

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Etymology of 'Acquaintance'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Acquaintance" Quotes from Famous Books

... and the mission that you undertook, at my request, to Colonel Ochterlony was a most dangerous one and, in itself, sufficient to ensure your promotion. There are many zealous officers in the service; but few, indeed, so qualified, by their acquaintance with the native languages, as to undertake the missions with which you have been entrusted, and have so successfully ...

— At the Point of the Bayonet - A Tale of the Mahratta War • G. A. Henty

... in intellectual labor. Nature asked for a periodical remission, and did not get it. And so Miss G—— died, not because she had mastered the wasps of Aristophanes and the Mecanique Celeste, not because she had made the acquaintance of Kant and Koelliker, and ventured to explore the anatomy of flowers and the secrets of chemistry, but because, while pursuing these studies, while doing all this work, she steadily ignored her woman's make. Believing that woman can do what man can, for she held ...

— Sex in Education - or, A Fair Chance for Girls • Edward H. Clarke

... close friend of M. Certain de La Coste, who shared the same quarters and belonged, like him, to the company de Noailles. On their return to the country they saw much of each other, and he made the acquaintance of Mlle. Du Puy. Mlle. Du Puy was pretty and high spirited, and although she would have little in the way of dowry, and although several rich matches were offered to my father, he preferred Mlle. Du Puy, and he married her ...

— The Memoirs of General the Baron de Marbot, Translated by - Oliver C. Colt • Baron de Marbot

... schoolboy days, of the intimate connexion which exists between boasting and bullying, I had long blushed to feel how pre-eminent my own country was in the ignoble practice; but a more intimate acquaintance with the United States has thoroughly satisfied me that that pre-eminence justly belongs to the great Republic. But it is not merely in national matters that this feeling exhibits itself; you observe it in ordinary life as well, by the intense love shown ...

— Lands of the Slave and the Free - Cuba, The United States, and Canada • Henry A. Murray

... awe. All eyes were on him when he walked around. Not even the magnificent Hancock or the eloquent Patrick Henry attracted so much attention. Yet he would stop in the street to speak to a child or to say a pleasant word to an old acquaintance ...

— In the Days of Poor Richard • Irving Bacheller

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