Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Knowledge of a person acquired by a relationship less intimate than friendship.
  • noun A relationship based on such knowledge.
  • noun A person whom one knows.
  • noun Knowledge or information about something or someone.
  • idiom (make (someone's) acquaintance) To meet someone for the first time.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state of being acquainted, or of being more or less intimately conversant (used with reference to both persons and things); knowledge of; experience in: used with with, and formerly sometimes with of.
  • noun A person known to one, especially a person with whom one is not on terms of great intimacy: as, he is not a friend, only an acquaintance.
  • noun The whole body of those with whom one is acquainted: used as a plural, as if for acquaintances. See acquaintant.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun 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
  • noun A person or persons with whom one is acquainted.
  • noun to be intimate.
  • noun [Obs.] to make the acquaintance of.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable 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
  • noun countable A person or persons with whom one is acquainted.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a person with whom you are acquainted
  • noun personal knowledge or information about someone or something
  • noun a relationship less intimate than friendship

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French acointance. Compare French accointance.

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Examples

  • If we wished to maintain the view that there is no acquaintance with Self, we might argue as follows: We are acquainted with _acquaintance_, and we know that it is a relation.

    Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays Bertrand Russell 1921

  • Then I said that you and I were shocked to find Gladys being charged with witchcraft because we had some acquaintance with her—and then I had to rephrase that because the coroner had never heard of the word acquaintance and wanted to know what it meant.

    To Ruin a Queen FIONA BUCKLEY 2000

  • Then I said that you and I were shocked to find Gladys being charged with witchcraft because we had some acquaintance with her—and then I had to rephrase that because the coroner had never heard of the word acquaintance and wanted to know what it meant.

    To Ruin a Queen FIONA BUCKLEY 2000

  • Then I said that you and I were shocked to find Gladys being charged with witchcraft because we had some acquaintance with her—and then I had to rephrase that because the coroner had never heard of the word acquaintance and wanted to know what it meant.

    To Ruin a Queen FIONA BUCKLEY 2000

  • Then I said that you and I were shocked to find Gladys being charged with witchcraft because we had some acquaintance with her—and then I had to rephrase that because the coroner had never heard of the word acquaintance and wanted to know what it meant.

    To Ruin a Queen FIONA BUCKLEY 2000

  • An embarrassing question in any case, and doubly so under the circumstances, because my acquaintance is a very learned man, one of the three or four really first-class minds that Europe produced in his generation; and naturally I, as one of the unlearned, was inclined to regard his lightest word with reverence amounting to awe.

    Matthew Yglesias » DeMint’s Remnant 2009

  • In fact, I think the relation of subject and object which I call acquaintance is simply the converse of the relation of object and subject which constitutes presentation.

    Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays Bertrand Russell 1921

  • The mutual acquaintance is quite the gentleman and has a beautiful family.

    Del in KS I had already summised that you are an extaordinary turkey hunter. 2009

  • The mutual acquaintance is quite the gentleman and has a beautiful family.

    Del in KS I had already summised that you are an extaordinary turkey hunter. 2009

  • You seem to think being overly effusive in (mistakenly) praising an acquaintance is the prime issue.

    State of the Race: Steve Poizner (R CAND, CA-GOV). | RedState 2010

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