ACQUIRE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Acquire

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/əkwˈaɪər/ Listen

Acquire

verb

(past & past part. acquired; pres. part. acquiring)

1.

Come into the possession of something concrete or abstract. Synonym: get. "They acquired a new pet" , "Get your results the next day" , "Get permission to take a few days off from work"

2.

Take on a certain form, attribute, or aspect. Synonyms: adopt, assume, take, take on. "The story took a new turn" , "He adopted an air of superiority" , "She assumed strange manners" , "The gods assume human or animal form in these fables"

3.

Come to have or undergo a change of (physical features and attributes). Synonyms: develop, get, grow, produce. "The patient developed abdominal pains" , "I got funny spots all over my body" , "Well-developed breasts"

4.

Locate (a moving entity) by means of a tracking system such as radar.

5.

Win something through one's efforts. Synonyms: gain, win. "Gain an understanding of international finance"

6.

Gain knowledge or skills. Synonyms: larn, learn. "I learned Sanskrit" , "Children acquire language at an amazing rate"

7.

Gain through experience. Synonyms: develop, evolve. "Children must develop a sense of right and wrong" , "Dave developed leadership qualities in his new position" , "Develop a passion for painting"

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WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University

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"Acquire" Quotes from Famous Books

... branches and thorns. At the beginning of the rainy season there grows from each of those groves a quantity of thick bamboos, resembling large asparagus, which shoot up as it were by enchantment. In the space of a month they become from fifty to sixty feet long, and after a short time they acquire all the solidity necessary for the various works to ...

— Adventures in the Philippine Islands • Paul P. de La Gironiere

... latter's secretary than she later hesitated to open the desk of her brother. The correspondence which she read in that way was of a nature which exasperated her desire for vengeance almost to frenzy. For not only did she acquire the evidence of a happiness shared by them which humiliated in her the woman barren in all senses of the word, a stranger to voluptuousness as well as to maternity, but she gathered from it numerous proofs that the Countess cherished, with regard to her, a scorn of race as absolute as ...

— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... "conversion" that Italy had worked in his heart. "In the full confidence of valour and victory," said Ataulfus, "I once aspired to change the face of the universe; to obliterate the name of Rome; to erect on its ruins the dominion of the Goths; and to acquire, like Augustus, the immortal fame of the founder of a new empire. By repeated experiments I was gradually convinced that laws are essentially necessary to maintain and regulate a well constituted state, and that the fierce untractable humour of the Goths was incapable of bearing the salutary ...

— Ravenna, A Study • Edward Hutton

... pitifully ignorant all their lives. "Study everything around you," said he to the young man. "Go out and walk in the street and read the shop signs. Bend over the bookstalls and read titles. Listen to the talk of the people. If you acquire these habits, you will not only learn something new every time you leave your door, but you will always carry with ...

— Sir Robert Hart - The Romance of a Great Career, 2nd Edition • Juliet Bredon

... with the firm of Cannan and Smith, serving seven years for his meat and clothing. He applied himself to his trade, and became a good, steady workman. He was thoughtful and self-improving, always endeavouring to acquire knowledge of new arts and to obtain insight into new machines. "Even in early life," said he, in the account of his career addressed to his children, "I felt a strong desire to know what others knew, ...

— Industrial Biography - Iron Workers and Tool Makers • Samuel Smiles

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