FAMILIAR • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Familiar

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/fəmˈɪljər/ Listen

adjective

Familiar adj.

1.

Of or pertaining to a family; domestic. "Familiar feuds."

Synonyms: familial.

2.

Closely acquainted or intimate, as a friend or companion; well versed in, as any subject of study; as, familiar with the Scriptures.

3.

Characterized by, or exhibiting, the manner of an intimate friend; not formal; unconstrained; easy; accessible. "In loose, familiar strains." "Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar."

4.

Well known; well understood; common; frequent; as, a familiar illustration. "That war, or peace, or both at once, may be As things acquainted and familiar to us." "There is nothing more familiar than this."

5.

Improperly acquainted; wrongly intimate.

Familiar spirit, a demon or evil spirit supposed to attend at call.

noun

Familiar n.

1.

An intimate; a companion. "All my familiars watched for my halting."

2.

An attendant demon or evil spirit.

3.

(Court of Inquisition) A confidential officer employed in the service of the tribunal, especially in apprehending and imprisoning the accused.

See images of 'Familiar'

Etymology of 'Familiar'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Familiar" Quotes from Famous Books

... formed a companionship and a comradeship with death. For months they were accustomed to look daily down the long, long trail leading to the Great Divide. They left behind many who traveled the trail and went over the Divide. Peril was their constant attendant, danger so familiar that they ...

— History of the American Negro in the Great World War • W. Allison Sweeney

... A comparison more familiar to the British reader might be made to the philabeg or short petticoat ...

— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 5 • Robert Kerr

... silence, however—the agent, who was perfectly familiar with the way, leading. They soon emerged into the open country, and after a few miles began to ascend, and felt the keen air from the sea blow upon their faces—the path soon became rugged and uneven, but sloping towards the sea. In a short time they reached the beach. Here they dismounted and tied ...

— Edward Barnett; a Neglected Child of South Carolina, Who Rose to Be a Peer of Great Britain,--and the Stormy Life of His Grandfather, Captain Williams • Tobias Aconite

... is also one of the fixed and solid institutions of Poughkeepsie, located in the very heart of the city. It has accomplished good work in preparing young men for business, and has made Poughkeepsie a familiar word in every household throughout the land. It was fortunate for the city that the energetic founder of this college selected the central point of the Hudson as the place of all others most suited for his enterprise, and equally ...

— The Hudson - Three Centuries of History, Romance and Invention • Wallace Bruce

... Garfield, several by Guiteau, and one by Ballington Booth—the last representing a memory of the fact that he had been shot by a man named Booth, to whose surname the writer added the name with which he was most familiar in connection therewith. A request to name five of the States that seceded in 1861 received answers that included almost every State in the Union. It happened to be at the time of the silver agitation ...

— Theodore Roosevelt - An Autobiography by Theodore Roosevelt • Theodore Roosevelt

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