Emily Dickinson Lexicon

AC-QUAINT'ANCE, n.

1. Familiar knowledge; a state of being acquainted, or of having intimate or more than slight or superficial knowledge; as, I know the man, but have no acquaintance with him. Sometimes it denotes a more slight knowledge.
2. A person or persons well known; usually persons we have been accustomed to see and converse with; sometimes, persons more slightly known. Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and my acquaintance into darkness. Ps. lxxxviii. My acquaintance are estranged from me. Job xix. Acquaintances, in the plural, is used, as applied to individual persons known; but more generally, acquaintance is used for one or more. Acquaintant, in like sense is not used.