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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
acquaintance
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a circle of acquaintances (=a group of people that someone knows)
▪ She has a wide circle of acquaintances.
acquaintance rape
have a circle of friends/acquaintances etc
▪ She was beautiful and had a wide circle of admirers.
renew a friendship/acquaintance etc (=become friendly with someone again)
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
casual
▪ He seemed to recall some casual acquaintance saying something recently about market gardening.
▪ Still, Dave puts his family at great risk, yet takes smart precautions to protect a casual acquaintance.
▪ You may have known some one else for twenty years and yet he will never be more than a casual acquaintance.
▪ He will certainly have friends, neighbours, and casual acquaintances.
▪ The majority were introduced to injection by a casual acquaintance.
▪ Writers constantly have to deal with this prejudice, and it is well worth remembering this before discussing writing with casual acquaintances.
▪ The young woman in question, a casual acquaintance of my family in Vienna, had inflamed me with cunning caresses.
close
▪ In one of my close acquaintances at B.P., rationing and shortages seemed to effect an eccentric metamorphosis.
▪ I made no friends or even close acquaintances during my eighteen months at college.
▪ Keble as a young man enthusiastically planned to edit his works, though on closer acquaintance with them he renounced the project.
▪ On the other hand a close business acquaintance will be surprised to receive a letter from you with a very formal tone.
▪ Cley's closest acquaintance was Councillor Deems.
▪ This impression is borne out on close acquaintance, there being little variation in contour on the wide top.
mutual
▪ The men with the Brigade ties and their friends were running out of potential mutual acquaintances to describe.
▪ There was only one John of their mutual acquaintance in Brixton prison: John Hebden.
new
▪ They gave my new acquaintance a somewhat belligerent aspect, you may be sure!
▪ Because you are also likely to be valuable to your new acquaintances, friendships develop.
▪ Does a children's party or a loved-one's funeral inhibit the urge to chat up new acquaintances?
▪ Of course my new conservative acquaintances take the opposite view, sort of.
▪ The tone of deference suggests that this person was a new acquaintance, and that Leapor respected her literary judgement.
▪ But what specific actions can we take to enhance our satisfaction while at the same time reassuring our new acquaintances?
▪ I could find no one among my internationalist new acquaintances who understood what was happening in my country.
▪ Lucy was treating Jay like a delightful new acquaintance she couldn't quite place or fit into her life.
old
▪ But I could not bear to be supplanted in a view that lay next to my heart by an old acquaintance.
▪ An old acquaintance visiting from California once asked to borrow my Teflon skillet to demonstrate his culinary skills.
▪ She chats with old acquaintances who bought dope from her back in the old place.
▪ I didn't think you were down there renewing an old acquaintance.
▪ Jozef put me in contact with an old acquaintance of his, who still works for MI5.
▪ And to see how many of my old acquaintance are dead ... Enough of that.
personal
▪ My slight personal acquaintance with the subject of all this discouraging impersonal solemnity seemed slightly ridiculous.
▪ However, even during adulthood we are constantly learning the faces of new individuals, both personal acquaintances and media figures.
■ NOUN
business
▪ Usually clients and business acquaintances went through his secretary, and only the very important calls got passed through.
▪ I hasten to add that she was a business acquaintance, not a friend.
▪ We're supposed to be a couple, not business acquaintances.
▪ On the other hand a close business acquaintance will be surprised to receive a letter from you with a very formal tone.
rape
▪ Many questions have been raised about acquaintance rape since the surge of reported cases has been noted across the country.
■ VERB
make
▪ I made the acquaintance of a girl and we necked all the way to Indianapolis.
▪ I am so happy to make your acquaintance.
▪ Last summer I had spent a couple of weeks here and made a few acquaintances.
▪ Yes, you really must make the acquaintance of your great-uncle.
▪ Cecil made her acquaintance as he read through the pages of one of her books.
▪ Exalted girls hung out at back stages and at hotels, trying to make the acquaintance of new born stars.
▪ Elizabeth and Jane make the acquaintance of two prosperous gentlemen, the affable Mr Bingley and his cold friend, Darcy.
renew
▪ There will be a buffet reception afterwards - a chance to renew acquaintance with old friends.
▪ Instead he renewed his acquaintance with Kate Molland.
▪ Perhaps we shall renew our acquaintance in Barcelona tonight, where Real Madrid have their first major test under his management.
▪ The man from Louisiana felt it was time to renew the acquaintance.
▪ Johnnie Warburton renewed his acquaintance with Jack when they were designated to work alternate shifts.
▪ It was so nice for me to renew acquaintance once again with my old and trusted friends, Ingleborough and Company.
▪ I didn't think you were down there renewing an old acquaintance.
▪ The events are a good reason for the enthusiasts of this largely non-social past time to gather and renew acquaintances.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
have a nodding acquaintance (with sb)
have a nodding acquaintance (with sth)
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ An acquaintance of Derek's from Texas arrived earlier in the week.
▪ I don't want to talk about religion with business acquaintances.
▪ I first heard of the idea from a business acquaintance in Montpelier.
▪ Jane and I met through a mutual acquaintance at a party.
▪ She's just an acquaintance -- I see her sometimes at night school.
▪ She's just an acquaintance - I sometimes see her at aerobics.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A senior international referee of my acquaintance was standing nearby and confirmed my opinion.
▪ And for all his imagination, he was not a good judge of character on limited acquaintance.
▪ Another acquaintance, some one we d not heard from since our last visit, apologized for not answering our annual letters.
▪ But she had come pregnant, with a teaching diploma, no money and few acquaintances.
▪ In this kind of case, pre-existing acquaintances were invalidated.
▪ The events are a good reason for the enthusiasts of this largely non-social past time to gather and renew acquaintances.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Acquaintance

Acquaintance \Ac*quaint"ance\, n. [OE. aqueintance, OF. acointance, fr. acointier. See Acquaint.]

  1. 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.
    --Sir W. Jones.

  2. A person or persons with whom one is acquainted.

    Montgomery was an old acquaintance of Ferguson.
    --Macaulay.

    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 with, to make the acquaintance of. [Obs.]

    Syn: Familiarity; intimacy; fellowship; knowledge.

    Usage: 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.
    --Addison.

    We contract at last such a familiarity with them as makes it difficult and irksome for us to call off our minds.
    --Atterbury.

    It is in our power to confine our friendships and intimacies to men of virtue.
    --Rogers.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
acquaintance

c.1300, "state of being acquainted;" late 14c., "person with whom one is acquainted;" also "personal knowledge;" from Old French acointance "acquaintance, friendship, familiarity," noun of action from acointer (see acquaint). Acquaintant (17c.), would have been better in the "person known" sense but is now obsolete.

Wiktionary
acquaintance

n. 1 (context uncountable English) 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 2 (context countable English) A person or persons with whom one is acquainted.

WordNet
acquaintance
  1. n. personal knowledge or information about someone or something [syn: familiarity, conversance, conversancy]

  2. a relationship less intimate than friendship [syn: acquaintanceship]

  3. a person with whom you are acquainted; "I have trouble remembering the names of all my acquaintances"; "we are friends of the family" [syn: friend]

Wikipedia

Usage examples of "acquaintance".

At her house I made the acquaintance of several gamblers, and of three or four frauleins who, without any dread of the Commissaries of Chastity, were devoted to the worship of Venus, and were so kindly disposed that they were not afraid of lowering their nobility by accepting some reward for their kindness--a circumstance which proved to me that the Commissaries were in the habit of troubling only the girls who did not frequent good houses.

I left Russia with the actress Valville, and I must here tell the reader how I came to make her acquaintance.

Clerval, the actor, had been gathering together a company of actors at Paris, and making her acquaintance by chance and finding her to be intelligent, he assured her that she was a born actress, though she had never suspected it.

To these qualifications let us add his affability and pliant disposition, and then the reader will not wonder that he was looked upon as the pattern of human perfection, and his acquaintance courted accordingly.

For the first time in their brief acquaintance, it occurred to Alec that Thero must be a Watcher, too.

She rose hastily, and after she had begged an acquaintance to tell Alette and Harald that a mere headache compelled her to leave the dance, she hurried by the wood-path back to Semb.

Our worthy acquaintance Mr Malachi Mulligan now appeared in the doorway as the students were finishing their apologue accompanied with a friend whom he had just rencountered, a young gentleman, his name Alec Bannon, who had late come to town, it being his intention to buy a colour or a cornetcy in the fencibles and list for the wars.

The Archdeacon, ignorant that this question was being asked, strolled happily on between his two acquaintances, and with them turned up the drive to Cully.

There were no wires overhead--no sound of life or movement except, here and there, there passed slowly to and fro human figures dressed in the same asbestos clothes as my acquaintance, with the same hairless faces, and the same look of infinite age upon them.

I venture to say that if one should count the Ifs and the Ases in the conversation of his acquaintances, he would find the more able and important persons among them--statesmen, generals, men of business-- among the Ases, and the majority of the conspicuous failures among the Ifs.

He sounded more human and was displaying more animation, Asey thought, than he had at any time during their acquaintance.

Then he turning himselfe, embraced and kissed him, and desired the Gentleman, who was one of his acquaintance, to sit downe by him : and Diophanes being astonied with this sudden change, forgot what he was doing, and sayd, O deare friend you are heartily welcome, I pray you when arrived you into these parts?

During this time she was visited by physicians, attended by nurses, and received constant messages from her acquaintance to enquire after her health.

Sir--During the last day or two several of the more Intelligent of my acquaintances have suggested that The Avenger, whoever he may be, must be known to a certain number of persons.

I received the congratulations of the baili upon the excellent acquaintances I had already made, and M.