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scrape up an acquaintance

Idioms  

  1. Make an effort to become familiar with someone, especially for one's own benefit. For example, He scraped up an acquaintance with the college president in hopes of getting his son admitted. This term uses scrape in the sense of “gather with difficulty” (also see under scare up). Originally put as scrape acquaintance, it was first recorded in 1600.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Although Piotr Matov met Ostrov under unfriendly circumstances, Ostrov managed to scrape up an acquaintance even with him.

From The Created Legend by Cournos, John

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.