acquaintance : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: acquaintance	by the DICT Development Group
2 results for acquaintance
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
acquaintance n personal knowledge or information about someone or something Synonym(s): acquaintance, familiarity, conversance, conversancy a relationship less intimate than friendship Synonym(s): acquaintance, acquaintanceship a person with whom you are acquainted; "I have trouble remembering the names of all my acquaintances"; "we are friends of the family" Synonym(s): acquaintance, friend Antonym(s): alien, stranger, unknown
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Acquaintance \Acquaint"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.