KJV Dictionary Definition: familiar

familiar

FAMIL'IAR, a. famil'yar. L. familiaris, familia, family, which see.

1. Pertaining to a family; domestic.

2. Accustomed by frequent converse; well acquainted with; intimate; close; as a familiar friend or companion.

3. Affable; not formal or distant; easy in conversation.

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.

4. Well acquainted with; knowing by frequent use. Be familiar with the scriptures.

5. Well known; learned or well understood by frequent use. Let the scriptures be familiar to us.

6. Unceremonious; free; unconstrained; easy. The emperor conversed with the gentleman in the most familiar manner.

7. Common; frequent and intimate. By familiar intercourse, strong attachments are soon formed.

8. Easy; unconstrained; not formal. His letters are written in a familiar style.

He sports in loose familiar strains.

9. Intimate in an unlawful degree.

A poor man found a priest familiar with his wife.

FAMIL'IAR, n.

1. An intimate; a close companion; one long acquainted; one accustomed to another by free, unreserved converse.

All my familiars watched for my halting. Jer. 20.

2. A demon or evil spirit supposed to attend at a call. But in general we say, a familiar spirit.

3. In the court of Inquisition, a person who assists in apprehending and imprisoning the accused.

familiarity

FAMILIAR'ITY, n.

1. Intimate and frequent converse, or association in company. The gentlemen lived in remarkable familiarity. Hence,

2. Easiness of conversation; affability; freedom from ceremony.

3. Intimacy; intimate acquaintance; unconstrained intercourse.

familiarize

FAMIL'IARIZE, v.t.

1. To make familiar or intimate; to habituate; to accustom; to make well known, by practice or converse; as, to familiarize one's self to scenes of distress.

2. To make easy by practice or customary use, or by intercourse.

3. To bring down from a state of distant superiority.

The genius smiled on me with a look of compassion and affability that familiarized him to my imagination.

familiarized

FAMIL'IARIZED, pp. Accustomed; habituated; made easy by practice, custom or use.

familiarizing

FAMIL'IARIZING, ppr. Accustoming; rendering easy by practice, custom or use.

Definitions from Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828.
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