acquire

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English

Etymology

From Middle English acqueren, from Old French aquerre, from Latin acquirō; ad- + quaerō (“to seek for”). See quest.

Pronunciation

Verb

acquire (third-person singular simple present acquires, present participle acquiring, simple past and past participle acquired)

  1. (transitive) To get.
  2. (transitive) To gain, usually by one's own exertions; to get as one's own.
    to acquire a skill
    to acquire decent habits and manners
    He acquired a title.
    All the riches he acquired were from hard work.
    One should acquire as much knowledge as possible from reading.
    • a. 1678 (date written), Isaac Barrow, “(please specify the chapter name or sermon number). The Consideration of our Latter End”, in The Works of Dr. Isaac Barrow. , volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: A J Valpy, , published 1830–1831, →OCLC:
      No virtue is acquired in an instant, but by degrees, step by step.
    • 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC:
      Descent is the title whereby a man, on the death of his ancestor, acquires his estate, by right of representation, as his heir at law.
    • 1922, Michael Arlen, “3/19/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
      Ivor had acquired more than a mile of fishing rights with the house ; he was not at all a good fisherman, but one must do something ; one generally, however, banged a ball with a squash-racket against a wall.
    • 1980, A. W. Bally, Dynamics of Plate Interiors, →ISBN, page 49:
      In the process of basification, the top layer of the crust becomes basic, while the lower becomes ultrabasic acquiring the density of the mantle or an even greater density
    • 2012, Nadine Gordimer, No Time Like the Present, Bloomsbury, published 2013, page 46:
      If you're black you've had to improvise communication with unilingual whites, she'd probably easily acquire this ancient one, too.
  3. (medicine) To become affected by an illness.
    Synonyms: contract, catch, get
  4. (computing) To sample signals and convert them into digital values.
  5. (Canada, US, military) To begin tracking a mobile target with a particular detector or sight, generally with the implication that an attack on the target thereby becomes possible.

Conjugation

Conjugation of acquire
infinitive (to) acquire
present tense past tense
1st-person singular acquire acquired
2nd-person singular acquire, acquirest† acquired, acquiredst†
3rd-person singular acquires, acquireth† acquired
plural acquire
subjunctive acquire acquired
imperative acquire —
participles acquiring acquired

†Archaic or obsolete.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Translations

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Translations to be checked

See also

Latin

Verb

acquīre

  1. second-person singular present active imperative of acquīrō
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