a nodding acquaintance

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

a nodding acquaintance with (someone or something)

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
See also:
  • a nodding acquaintance with (someone or something)
  • acquaintance
  • nodding acquaintance
  • nodding acquaintance, a
  • 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
References in periodicals archive
Being professionally obliged to keep a nodding acquaintance with "popular culture", I read Lady Gaga was leaping to the defence of Miley Cyrus for her "twerking".
MILEY MAKES IT HARD TWERK
Students are presumed to have at least a nodding acquaintance with the Fourier transform of distributions, the Sobolev embedding theorems, and the Fredholm Theorem.
Dispersion decay and scattering theory
There's a running riff on London's view of the dark satanic north, but there's nothing grim about Brighouse's sparkling script laced as it is with frisky dialogue which offers more than a nodding acquaintance to Oscar Wilde.
Review; THE GAME Playhouse
If you want to gain a nodding acquaintance with a variety of movies made since the early 1980's with GLBT themes, this book can be a handy resource; but if you want to acquire an in-depth knowledge of the topic, it is likely to disappoint.
Independent Queer Cinema: Reviews and Interviews
During a visit to Los Angeles this spring, I called on Ray (who had remained no more than a nodding acquaintance).
Ten years ago. (10-20-30-40)
By Saturday, the word had gotten around, and Marilyn Shannon, a lady with lots of guts and more than a nodding acquaintance with cancer, decided to participate, as well.
Cancer Fund Raises Big Bucks
Fine and Snowden have created characters whose circumstances can be understood by anyone with a nodding acquaintance of the middle class.
Sweetly subversive: the comic style of David Fine & Alison Snowden
Anyone with a nodding acquaintance with the field knows that there is general agreement on the pattern and content of the steps of each period, yet almost all of these significant basic features are missing from Berkut's videos.
Historical Dance Review Course