NODDING ACQUAINTANCE Definition & Meaning

nodding acquaintance

noun

a slight, incomplete, or superficial knowledge (of something or someone).
He had only a nodding acquaintance with Italian and didn't trust it to get him through the tour. Although we were neighbors for several years, we had only a nodding acquaintance.
a person with whom one is only slightly acquainted.
I don't really know what he's like—he's only a nodding acquaintance.

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of nodding acquaintance¹

First recorded in 1860–65

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Idioms and Phrases

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]

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Others with whom we have only a nodding acquaintance, not a social relationship, seemed inquisitive and gossipy.

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To sit behind the Resolute Desk requires more than a mayor's nodding acquaintance with issues foreign and domestic.

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He had nodding acquaintance with Watters, due to a personal tragedy.

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My dealings with Ted were impersonal, although we had a nodding acquaintance from performances we both attended at the New York City Ballet.

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She talks on a dais the way she does to buddies over lunch—in a trumpety voice, flattened across mid-American vowels—and has only a nodding acquaintance with many decorums.

From

Noddack nodding dog

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