Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word familiar. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word familiar, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say familiar in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word familiar you have here. The definition of the word familiar will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition offamiliar, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. No one queried it. It was in the classic pattern of human weakness, mean and embarrassing and sad.
Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.
There’s a familiar face; that tune sounds familiar.
1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 75:
The familiars of the magicians, on the other hand, were not in all cases evil, and often may have approximated the "guides" with whom present-day spiritualists are well acquainted.
1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 8:
"What power hath gold?" Catweazle wondered as he picked up his familiar and put him in his special pocket.
1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Concerning the Patient”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy:, 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 2, section 1, member 4, subsection 3, page 199:
friend of mine, that finding a Receipt in Braſsivola, would needs take Hellebor in ſubſtance, & try it on his own perſon; but had not ſome of his familiars come to viſite him by chance, he had by his indiſcretion hazarded himſelfe; many ſuch I have obſerued.