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ACQUAINTANCE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Personal knowledge or information about someone or something
Synonyms:
acquaintance; conversance; conversancy; familiarity
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("acquaintance" is a kind of...):
information (knowledge acquired through study or experience or instruction)
Derivation:
acquaint (cause to come to know personally)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A person with whom you are acquainted
Example:
we are friends of the family
Synonyms:
acquaintance; friend
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("acquaintance" is a kind of...):
individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "acquaintance"):
bunkmate (someone who occupies the same sleeping quarters as yourself)
campmate (someone who lives in the same camp you do)
connection ((usually plural) a person who is influential and to whom you are connected in some way (as by family or friendship))
end man (a man at one end of a row of people)
homeboy (a male friend from your neighborhood or hometown)
messmate ((nautical) an associate with whom you share meals in the same mess (as on a ship))
pickup (a casual acquaintance; often made in hope of sexual relationships)
class fellow; classmate; schoolfellow; schoolmate (an acquaintance that you go to school with)
Antonym:
stranger (anyone who does not belong in the environment in which they are found)
stranger (an individual that one is not acquainted with)
Derivation:
acquaintanceship (a relationship less intimate than friendship)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A relationship less intimate than friendship
Synonyms:
acquaintance; acquaintanceship
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("acquaintance" is a kind of...):
relationship (a state involving mutual dealings between people or parties or countries)
Context examples:
The promise of a smooth career, which my first calm introduction to Thornfield Hall seemed to pledge, was not belied on a longer acquaintance with the place and its inmates.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
For this reason I asked you to return with me, as I was minded to make your further acquaintance.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
A fortnight's acquaintance is certainly very little.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Their subjects in general were such as belong to an opening acquaintance.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Elinor had always thought it would be more prudent for them to settle at some distance from Norland, than immediately amongst their present acquaintance.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
They ran up and saw with horror that the eagle had seized their old acquaintance the dwarf, and was going to carry him off.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
A psychotic disorder characterized by the patient's belief that acquaintances or closely related persons have been replaced by doubles or imposters.
(Capgras Syndrome, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)
A rare neuropsychiatric disorder whose primary feature is the delusion that relatives or close acquaintances are not the persons that they are known to be.
(Capgras Syndrome, NCI Thesaurus)
I feel you will find some of your greatest personal growth through the new contacts, acquaintances, and friendships you form now.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
Here also we made some acquaintances, who almost contrived to cheat me into happiness.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
