nodding acquaintance, a
a nodding acquaintance
A very limited knowledge of or familiarity with a given person or thing. I'll help you as best I can, but I only have a nodding acquaintance with property laws. I have a nodding acquaintance with him, but I wouldn't feel comfortable asking him to help me on this project.
See also: acquaintance, nod
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
nodding acquaintance
Superficial knowledge of someone or something, as in I have a nodding acquaintance with the company president, or She has a nodding acquaintance with that software program. This expression alludes to knowing someone just well enough to nod or bow upon meeting him or her. "Early 1800s]
See also: acquaintance, nod
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
nodding acquaintance, a
Superficial knowledge. An early nineteenth-century term, it conjures up the era when the formal bow was a normal greeting. Thomas Hughes used it in Tom Brown at Oxford (1861): “Many with whom he had scarcely a nodding acquaintance.”
See also: nod
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- a nodding acquaintance
- a nodding acquaintance with (someone or something)
- acquaintance
- nodding acquaintance
- a passing acquaintance with (someone or something)
- a passing acquaintance with someone
- a passing acquaintance with something
- be on nodding terms
- be on nodding terms (with someone)
- be on nodding terms with somebody