acquire
to come into possession or ownership of; get as one's own: to acquire property.
to gain for oneself through one's actions or efforts: to acquire learning.
Linguistics. to achieve native or nativelike command of (a language or a linguistic rule or element).
Military. to locate and track (a moving target) with a detector, as radar.
Origin of acquire
1synonym study For acquire
Other words for acquire
Other words from acquire
- ac·quir·a·ble, adjective
- ac·quir·a·bil·i·ty, noun
- ac·quir·er, noun
- pre·ac·quire, verb, pre·ac·quired, pre·ac·quir·ing.
- re·ac·quire, verb (used with object), re·ac·quired, re·ac·quir·ing.
- self-ac·quired, adjective
- un·ac·quir·a·ble, adjective
- un·ac·quired, adjective
- well-ac·quired, adjective
Words Nearby acquire
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use acquire in a sentence
But none of them managed to be able to acquire the weapons or the bomb materials to carry out either event.
Every question—for services to buy or advice to acquire—comes with a number.
Sex, Suicide, and Homework: The Secret World of the Telephone Hotline | Tim Teeman | November 20, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST“We have been and will continue to work to acquire the drugs in accordance with the law,” McNaughton said via email.
Dodge did acquire the collection, and now his own runs to 125 bicycles, dating from 1820 to 1920.
Pryor Dodge's Two-Wheeled Obsession Is Now a Museum of Bike History | Anthony Haden-Guest | September 15, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTAccording to media reports, Amazon, 21st Century Fox, Hearst, and Condé Nast are all vying to acquire StyleHaul.
Inside StyleHaul, the Largest Fashion Network on YouTube You’ve Never Heard Of | Lizzie Crocker | August 24, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
A child may acquire while quite young and before any methodical education commences a certain feeling for regular form.
Children's Ways | James SullyI found that I had been allowed to acquire certain bad habits and besetting sins—most people do.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation | H. G. (Herbert George) Wells“Doctrine”—the Monroe doctrine declared that no foreign power should acquire additional dominion in America.
Assimilative Memory | Marcus Dwight Larrowe (AKA Prof. A. Loisette)Accustomed to the bustle and hurry of a soldier's life, he was too old to acquire the tastes of a life of tranquillity.
Napoleon's Marshals | R. P. Dunn-PattisonNon-resident aliens can acquire no rights incident to residence here except as permitted by the federal government.
Putnam's Handy Law Book for the Layman | Albert Sidney Bolles
British Dictionary definitions for acquire
/ (əˈkwaɪə) /
(tr) to get or gain (something, such as an object, trait, or ability), esp more or less permanently
Origin of acquire
1Derived forms of acquire
- acquirable, adjective
- acquirement, noun
- acquirer, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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