Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Familiarize \Fa*mil"iar*ize\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Familiarized; p. pr. & vb. n. Familiarizing.] [Cf. F. familiariser.]
To make familiar or intimate; to habituate; to accustom; to make well known by practice or converse; as, to familiarize one's self with scenes of distress; we familiarized ourselves with the new surroundings.
To make acquainted, or skilled, by practice or study; as, to familiarize one's self with a business, a book, or a science.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
c.1600, "to make well known," from familiar + -ize or from French familiariser. Meaning "to make acquainted with" is from 1680s. Related: Familiarized; familiarizing.
Wiktionary
alt. To make, or become familiar with something or someone. vb. To make, or become familiar with something or someone.
WordNet
v. make familiar or acquainted; "you should acquaint yourself with your new computer"; "We familiarized ourselves with the new surroundings" [syn: familiarise, acquaint]
Usage examples of "familiarize".
White Sphinx Project, in fact, I had familiarized myself with dinotheres, giant baboons, australopithecines, and most of their extinct fellow travelers.
The professors of physical science, thoroughly familiarized with things which combine and dissolve, often come to fancy that everything is phenomenal and evanescent, that there is no immaterial substance, that spirit is not entity but process, that thought and feeling and will are mere transient functions of transient matter.
Messrs Gilder and Plater had gone into the town to familiarize themselves with its localities, while Grimshaw was left to look out for the raft.
They did not tell him anything important, merely familiarized him with certain names, the Dubards, the Cornus, the Gillets, Rateaus and Boncceurs.
The popular modes of religion, that propose any visible and material objects of worship, have the advantage of adapting and familiarizing themselves to the senses of mankind: but this advantage is counterbalanced by the various and inevitable accidents to which the faith of the idolater is exposed.
Two hundred years after the age of Pliny, the use of pure, or even of mixed silks, was confined to the female sex, till the opulent citizens of Rome and the provinces were insensibly familiarized with the example of Elagabalus, the first who, by this effeminate habit, had sullied the dignity of an emperor and a man.
Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you prepare your own limbs to wear them.
Slowly and carefully he examined the zebec, familiarizing himself with the position of every sheet, halyard and brace.
Pendel had instructed the journalist on bridge protocol, and given him an unassigned backup work station there, familiarizing him with its terminal and twin screens.
Not nearly enough to become proficient, but they were familiarized with the antitank weapons they might use and gained experience at identifying different types of targets.
Elevation and Deflection Drills, it is best that you become familiarized with the dimensions of the following targets and the ranges at which each is used.
The Buchers fell promptly again under his spell, the duos were dropped, and Gard retired into the attic for study, varying its monotony with sojourns in town to familiarize himself with the personal peculiarities of the German multitude.
He familiarized himself with the descriptions of every lawbreaker suspected of being in Kansas or Nebraska, visited the saloons, barber shop, general store, and pharmacy--where he was disgusted to find the irritating dandy, Joe Brooks, dispensing patent medicines.
Two hundred years after the age of Pliny, the use of pure, or even of mixed silks, was confined to the female sex, till the opulent citizens of Rome and the provinces were insensibly familiarized with the example of Elagabalus, the first who, by this effeminate habit, had sullied the dignity of an emperor and a man.
The Raiders could concentrate, if necessary, four hundred or five hundred men upon any point of attack, and each member of the gangs had become so familiarized with all the rest by long association in New York, and elsewhere, that he never dealt a blow amiss, while their opponents were nearly as likely to attack friends as enemies.