Acquaintance
Acquaintance ({not transcribed}) , noun
[Old English aqueintance, Old French acointance, from 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.
2.
A person or persons with whom one is acquainted.
Montgomery was an old acquaintance of Ferguson.
Our admiration of a famous man lessens upon our nearer acquaintance with him.
We contract at last such a familiarity with them as makes it difficult and irksome for us to call off our minds.
It is in our power to confine our friendships and intimacies to men of virtue.
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.
Collocations (2)
To be of acquaintance , to be intimate.
To take acquaintance of or with , to make the acquaintance of. [Obsolete]