Dictionary

preacquaint en · VERB

Etymology

From pre- + acquaint.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To acquaint beforehand.
   • 1633, James Shirley, The Witty Fair One, London: William Cooke, Act I, Scene 1, Wor[thy]. […] You haue not made your loue knowne to my Neece yet. Aym[well]. No, my intention was to preacquaint you.
   • [S]he inadvertently confirmed many Hints, vvith vvhich Slipſlop, vvhoſe Gallant he vvas, had pre-acquainted him; […] 1742, Henry Fielding, “What Past between the Lady and Lawyer Scout”, in The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews, and of His Friend Mr. Abraham Adams. […], volume II, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book IV, pages 188–189:
   • 1969, Tibor Agoston, Insight Therapy, State of Ohio Department of Mental Hygiene and Correction, Part 4, Chapter 110, p. 215, […] we may describe differential dynamics as a gallery of disease patterns that may preacquaint the therapist with the picture which is likely to emerge when all the pieces are fitted together.
   • Those things which have been previously stated, or which are necessarily implied, or with which we presume our hearers to have been preacquainted, we pronounce with such a subordination of stress as is suitable to the small importance of things already understood […] 1878, Alexander Melville Bell, The Principles of Elocution, Salem, Massachusetts: James P. Burbank, Introduction, p. xx:

Forms

Relateds

preacquaintance