From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishacquaintanceac‧quaint‧ance /əˈkweɪntəns/ ●○○ noun 1 somebody you know [countable]KNOW somebody someone you know, but who is not a close friend She was a casual acquaintance of my family in Vienna. He heard about the job through a mutual acquaintance (=someone you and another person both know).► see thesaurus at friendRegisterIn everyday English, people usually say someone I know rather than an acquaintance:I got the job through someone I know.2 relationship [singular, uncountable] a relationship with someone you know, but who is not a close friend They developed an acquaintance over the Internet. You can’t judge her on such short acquaintance (=when you have not known her long). My uncle did not improve on further acquaintance (=when you knew him better).3 → make somebody’s acquaintance4 knowledge [uncountable] formalKNOW something knowledge or experience of a particular subjectacquaintance with The practice of a lawyer requires acquaintance with court procedures.have a passing/nodding acquaintance with something (=have only slight knowledge or experience of something) He has a passing acquaintance with a lot of different subjects.5 → of your acquaintance6 → on first acquaintance
Examples from the Corpus
acquaintance• She's just an acquaintance -- I see her sometimes at night school.• She's just an acquaintance - I sometimes see her at aerobics.• An acquaintance of Derek's from Texas arrived earlier in the week.• Another acquaintance, some one we d not heard from since our last visit, apologized for not answering our annual letters.• I first heard of the idea from a business acquaintance in Montpelier.• I don't want to talk about religion with business acquaintances.• In this kind of case, pre-existing acquaintances were invalidated.• But she had come pregnant, with a teaching diploma, no money and few acquaintances.• And for all his imagination, he was not a good judge of character on limited acquaintance.• Jane and I met through a mutual acquaintance at a party.• A senior international referee of my acquaintance was standing nearby and confirmed my opinion.• The events are a good reason for the enthusiasts of this largely non-social past time to gather and renew acquaintances.casual acquaintance• The majority were introduced to injection by a casual acquaintance.• Still, Dave puts his family at great risk, yet takes smart precautions to protect a casual acquaintance.• The young woman in question, a casual acquaintance of my family in Vienna, had inflamed me with cunning caresses.• You may have known some one else for twenty years and yet he will never be more than a casual acquaintance.• He will certainly have friends, neighbours, and casual acquaintances.• He seemed to recall some casual acquaintance saying something recently about market gardening.• Writers constantly have to deal with this prejudice, and it is well worth remembering this before discussing writing with casual acquaintances. 