acquaintance

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have a nodding acquaintance (with someone or something)

To have a slight or precursory knowledge of someone or something. Jim asked me to help fix his computer for him, but I'm afraid I only have a nodding acquaintance with how his machine works. Ruth and I had only a nodding acquaintance before going to the party, but once we got talking, it was like we'd been friends our whole lives.

See also: acquaintance, have, nod, someone

delighted to make your acquaintance

I'm very happy to meet you. After hearing so many good things about you, I'm delighted to make your acquaintance, Stu. A: "You must be Jenny. It's so nice to meet you." B: "Delighted to make your acquaintance."

make (someone's) acquaintance

To meet someone for the first time. After hearing so many good things about you, I'm delighted to make your acquaintance. I heard that she's a very influential producer, so I'm very eager to make her acquaintance.

scrape acquaintance with (someone)

old-fashioned To attempt to meet or befriend someone, especially because they may prove useful to one's needs, ambitions, or desires. He is constantly contriving ways to get into these parties so he can scrape acquaintance with someone from the film industry. It's been interesting to watch the people who tried to scrape acquaintance with her as her political career was on the rise just as quickly dissociate themselves from her in the midst of all this scandal.

a nodding acquaintance with (someone or something)

A very limited knowledge of or familiarity with a given person or thing. I'll help you as best I can, but I only have a nodding acquaintance with property laws. I have a nodding acquaintance with him, but I wouldn't feel comfortable asking him to help me on this project.

a nodding acquaintance

a passing acquaintance with (someone or something)

A very limited knowledge of or familiarity with a given person or thing. I'll help you as best I can, but I only have a passing acquaintance with property laws. I have a passing acquaintance with him, but I wouldn't feel comfortable asking him to help me on this project.

scrape up an acquaintance with (someone)

old-fashioned To attempt to meet or befriend someone, especially because they may prove useful to one's needs, ambitions, or desires. He is constantly contriving ways to get into these parties so he can scrape up an acquaintance with someone from the film industry. It's been interesting to watch the people who tried to scrape up an acquaintance with her as her political career was on the rise just as quickly dissociate themselves from her in the midst of all this scandal.

(I'm) delighted to make your acquaintance.

Fig. I am very glad to meet you. Tom: My name is Tom. I work in the advertising department. Mary: I'm Mary. I work in accounting. Delighted to make your acquaintance. Tom: Yeah. Good to meet you. Fred: Sue, this is Bob. He'll be working with us on the Wilson project. Sue: I'm delighted to make your acquaintance, Bob. Bob: My pleasure.

nodding acquaintance

Superficial knowledge of someone or something, as in I have a nodding acquaintance with the company president, or She has a nodding acquaintance with that software program. This expression alludes to knowing someone just well enough to nod or bow upon meeting him or her. "Early 1800s]

scrape up an acquaintance

Make an effort to become familiar with someone, especially for one's own benefit. For example, He scraped up an acquaintance with the college president in hopes of getting his son admitted . This term uses scrape in the sense of "gather with difficulty" (also see under scare up). Originally put as scrape acquaintance, it was first recorded in 1600.

a passing acquaintance with someone

If you have a passing acquaintance with someone, you know them slightly. To those with only a passing acquaintance he is charming and engaging. Note: You can also say that you have a nodding acquaintance with someone. And of course, he can now claim — after his first summit as head of government — more than a nodding acquaintance with his fellow leaders. Note: You can call a person a passing acquaintance or a nodding acquaintance if you know them slightly. He was no more than a passing acquaintance of Wright.

See also: acquaintance, passing, someone

a passing acquaintance with something

If you have a passing acquaintance with something, you only know a little about it. These days a theatre-goer needs more than a passing acquaintance with science. Note: You can also say that you have a nodding acquaintance with something. We chatted for a little about poetry, with which he showed considerably more than a nodding acquaintance.

See also: acquaintance, passing, something

have a nodding acquaintance with someone or something

know someone slightly; know a little about something.

1989 Donnie Radcliffe Simply Barbara Bush Their families had lived less than ten miles apart as they were growing up, and their fathers almost certainly had a nodding acquaintance on the golf course.

See also: acquaintance, have, nod, someone, something

scrape acquaintance with

contrive to get to know. dated

1992 Atlantic I thought how lucky the Crimms were to have scraped acquaintance with me, for I seldom reveal my identity to ordinary people on my jaunts around the world.

make somebody’s acquaintance

make the acquaintance of somebody

(formal) meet somebody for the first time: I am delighted to make your acquaintance, Mrs Baker. ♢ I made the acquaintance of several musicians at that time.

have a nodding acˈquaintance with somebody/something

know somebody slightly/know a little about something: I have a nodding acquaintance with some members of the committee. ♢ You need at least a nodding acquaintance with the rules of chess to understand the book.

See also: acquaintance, have, nod, somebody, something

scrape (up) an acˈquaintance with somebody

(informal) try to become friends with somebody because they might be useful to you

See also: acquaintance, scrape, somebody

make (someone's) acquaintance

To meet someone for the first time: I made his acquaintance at a business conference.

nodding acquaintance, a

Superficial knowledge. An early nineteenth-century term, it conjures up the era when the formal bow was a normal greeting. Thomas Hughes used it in Tom Brown at Oxford (1861): “Many with whom he had scarcely a nodding acquaintance.”

See also: nod

References in periodicals archive ?

The acquaintance, whose identity was withheld by the police, recently filed the complaint with the Gangnam Police Station in southern Seoul, claiming that he was bitten on the face when he visited Park's home in 2011 and was still suffering from serious after effects.

K-pop band JYJ's Park Yu-chun accused of dog bite seven years ago

If your acquaintance feels that her personal liberty and human rights are violated by her parents, she may file a complaint at the nearest police station or can approach the human rights department in the emirate she resides.

Approach cops if parents violate human rights of their kids

The Supreme Court has admitted his petition of acquaintance and issued notices to parties and adjourned the hearing of the case for one month.

SC admits acquaintance application of accused

Prosecutors said the defendant "might have got away with it" had it not been for an acquaintance contacting the police.

Knifeman bragged about his robbery

How did your acquaintance with Iranian cinema come about?

Iranian Films Have Humanitarian, Psychological Message

This paper argues that a number of recent Russell interpreters, including Evans, Davidson, Campbell, and Proops, mistakenly attribute to Russell the received view of acquaintance, that is, the view that acquaintance safeguards us from misidentifying the objects of our acquaintance.

Mind: Vol. 126, No. 502, April 2017

They had a boodle fight during our acquaintance party,' said Fuerzas.

Food poisoning downs 38 Bohol students, class adviser

Patrick Chariot of the department of forensic medicine at Hopital Jean-Verdier in Bondy, France, and his colleagues conducted an observational and prospective study to compare the psychological and physical symptoms of women assaulted by intimate partners with the symptoms of women who were assaulted by an acquaintance or unknown person.

Sexual assault by partners as distressing as stranger assaults

The acquaintance reported being told by the officer that the alleged victim said Brown never hit him, according to the police records.

Internal affairs probe stems from Chris Brown case

That probe centers around a disputed conversation between the officer and an unidentified acquaintance of Brown, discrepancies that will likely be important to resolve as the criminal prosecution moves forward.

Internal affairs probe stems from Chris Brown case

Brewer appropriates for his foundational concept what he considers to be a key insight of the early modern tradition: perceptual experience is an irreducibly relational act of direct acquaintance, the direct object of which constitutes the fundamental nature of experience.

Bill Brewer: Perception and its Objects

ySTANBUL (CyHAN)- A man in the Marmara province of Yalova was reportedly kidnapped and tortured after he jokingly told an acquaintance he had found a treasure, media reports said on Tuesday.

Man kidnapped after joking about finding treasure

Like China Media Research, China Media Report Overseas is intended to bring the results of Chinese media/communication research to the attention of the world, as well as to facilitate, in reciprocal fashion, the acquaintance of scholars within China with media/communication research done outside of China.

China media report overseas

Then I remembered when an acquaintance who happens to be involved in the medical field said to me once: if I ever had a homosexual patient, I'd stop treating them.

The IDF's Facebook guy posts blackface pic of Obama

En ingles este termino tiene distintos usos, todos dificiles de traducir: a) describe a aquel la persona que conoces, pero con quien no mantienes una rel acion estrecha--una <<conocencia>>, como diriamos por aca--; tambien se puede usar en plural: <<she has many acquaintances>>; b) por otro lado, tambien describe a quien es reconocido en algo: <<a good acquaintance of french wines>> y, utilizado como adjetivo, se refiere al hecho de tener conocimiento con respecto a alguien o algo; por ejemplo, <<to be acquainted with law>>--saber acerca de leyes--; c) por ultimo, una acquaintace es tambien una breve rel acion con alguien, que no paso a mayores.