Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To cause to come to know personally.
  • transitive verb To make familiar.
  • transitive verb To inform.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Acquainted; personally or mutually known: as, we are not acquaint.
  • noun An acquaintance.
  • To cause to have acquaintance or be more or less familiar; make conversant: used with with: as, to acquaint one's self, or make one's self acquainted, with a subject; to make persons (to be) acquainted with each other.
  • To furnish with knowledge or information (about); make conversant by notice or communication: with with before the subject of information, and formerly sometimes with of: as, to acquaint a friend with one's proceedings.
  • Synonyms To acquaint (with), make known (to), familiarize (with), introduce (to). To inform (of), communicate (to), apprise (of), mention (to), signify (to), intimate (to), disclose (to), reveal (to), tell (to). See announce and inform.
  • To become acquainted.

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

  • adjective obsolete Acquainted.
  • transitive verb To furnish or give experimental knowledge of; to make (one) to know; to make familiar; -- followed by with.
  • transitive verb To communicate notice to; to inform; to make cognizant; -- followed by with (formerly, also, by of), or by that, introducing the intelligence.
  • transitive verb obsolete To familiarize; to accustom.
  • transitive verb to be possessed of personal knowledge of; to be cognizant of; to be more or less familiar with; to be on terms of social intercourse with.

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

  • verb transitive, followed by with To furnish or give experimental knowledge of; to make (one) to know; to make familiar.
  • verb transitive, archaic To communicate notice to; to inform; to make cognizant.
  • verb transitive, obsolete To familiarize; to accustom.
  • adjective obsolete Acquainted.

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

  • verb cause to come to know personally
  • verb inform
  • verb make familiar or conversant with

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English aqueinten, from Old French acointier, from Medieval Latin accognitāre, from Latin accognitus, past participle of accognōscere, to know perfectly : ad-, intensive pref.; see ad– + cognōscere, to know; see cognition.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English aqueinten, acointen, from Old French acointier, from Late Latin adcognitare, from Latin ad + cognitus, past participle of cognoscere ("to know"), from con- + noscere ("to know"). See quaint, know.

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Examples

  • I refer the way and manner I was apprehended, to the bearer, and shall only, in short, acquaint your Grace with the demands, which are, that your Grace shall discharge him of all soumes he owes your Grace, and give him the soume of 3400 merks for his loss and damages sustained by him, both at Craigrostown and at his house,

    Rob Roy 2005

  • I refer the way and manner I was apprehended, to the bearer, and shall only, in short, acquaint your Grace with the demands, which are, that your Grace shall discharge him of all soumes he owes your

    Rob Roy — Complete Walter Scott 1801

  • I refer the way and manner I was apprehended, to the bearer, and shall only, in short, acquaint your Grace with the demands, which are, that your Grace shall discharge him of all soumes he owes your

    Rob Roy — Volume 01 Walter Scott 1801

  • 48 But he answered It is not that I wish: I would fain acquaint thee with my true story.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • Hall, where the Board waited on the Duke of York to discourse about the disposing of Sir Thomas Allen's fleete, which is newly come home to Portsmouth; and here Middleton and I did in plain terms acquaint the Duke of York what we thought and had observed in the late

    Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete Samuel Pepys 1668

  • Portsmouth; and here Middleton and I did in plain terms acquaint the Duke of York what we thought and had observed in the late Court-martiall, which the Duke did give ear to; and though he thinks not fit to revoke what is already done in this case by a Court-martiall, yet it shall bring forth some good laws in the behaviour of Captains to their under Officers for the time to come.

    Diary of Samuel Pepys — Volume 73: April/May 1669 Samuel Pepys 1668

  • Hall, where the Board waited on the Duke of York to discourse about the disposing of Sir Thomas Allen's fleete, which is newly come home to Portsmouth; and here Middleton and I did in plain terms acquaint the Duke of York what we thought and had observed in the late

    Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete 1669 N.S. Samuel Pepys 1668

  • They at dinner before I come; and, when I had dined, I away home, and thence to White Hall, where the Board waited on the Duke of York to discourse about the disposing of Sir Thomas Allen's fleete, which is newly come home to Portsmouth; and here Middleton and I did in plain terms acquaint the Duke of York what we thought and had observed in the late Court-martiall, which the Duke did give ear to; and though he thinks not fit to revoke what is already done in this case by a Court-martiall, yet it shall bring forth some good laws in the behaviour of Captains to their under Officers for the time to come.

    Diary of Samuel Pepys, Apr/May 1668 Pepys, Samuel 1669

  • With me, the "firm conviction" is a matter of "circumstantial evidence," supported by analogy, and fortified by empirical testimony, such as acquaint the world with the facts and findings of science, and which I think admit of no other consistent and rational interpretation.

    The New Avatar and The Destiny of the Soul The Findings of Natural Science Reduced to Practical Studies in Psychology 1877

  • "acquaint" when Duke did not stand quite so high in favour.

    The Gold of Chickaree Susan Warner 1852

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  • "Elizabeth immediately recognizing the livery, guessed what it meant, and imparted no small degree of her surprise to her relations by acquainting them with the honour which she expected." - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

    August 18, 2015