ACQUAINTANCE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does acquaintance mean? 

• ACQUAINTANCE (noun)
  The noun ACQUAINTANCE has 3 senses:

1. personal knowledge or information about someone or something

2. a relationship less intimate than friendship

3. a person with whom you are acquainted

  Familiarity information: ACQUAINTANCE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ACQUAINTANCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Personal knowledge or information about someone or something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

acquaintance; conversance; conversancy; familiarity

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 relationship less intimate than friendship

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

acquaintance; acquaintanceship

Hypernyms ("acquaintance" is a kind of...):

relationship (a state involving mutual dealings between people or parties or countries)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A person with whom you are acquainted

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

acquaintance; friend

Context example:

we are friends of the family

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)

 Context examples 

It was a splendid sight, and she began, for the first time that evening, to feel herself at a ball: she longed to dance, but she had not an acquaintance in the room.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

“We have had the pleasure of making the Doctor’s acquaintance,” said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had occurred.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The men appeared to her all coarse, the women all pert, everybody underbred; and she gave as little contentment as she received from introductions either to old or new acquaintance.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I find it very curious to see my own infant face, looking up at me from the Crocodile stories; and to be reminded by it of my old acquaintance Brooks of Sheffield.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But Buck did not read the newspapers, and he did not know that Manuel, one of the gardener’s helpers, was an undesirable acquaintance.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

It was this that made him protest, at the commencement of our acquaintance, against being called Yonson.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Reginald Musgrave had been in the same college as myself, and I had some slight acquaintance with him.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He had many acquaintances among them, but few friends, and no one whom he loved.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The hospitable Americans had invited every acquaintance they had in Nice, and having no prejudice against titles, secured a few to add luster to their Christmas ball.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

"She was very much honoured, and should be happy in their acquaintance."

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)