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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Familiar \Fa*mil"iar\, noun
1. An intimate; a companion.
All my familiars watched for my halting. --Jer. xx. 10.
2. An attendant demon or evil spirit. --Shak.
3. (Court of Inquisition) A confidential officer employed in the service of the tribunal, especially in apprehending and imprisoning the accused.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Familiar \Fa*mil'iar\, adjective [OE. familer, familier, F. familier, fr. L. familiaris, fr. familia family. See {Family}.]
1. Of or pertaining to a family; domestic. ''Familiar feuds.'' --Byron.
Syn: 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.'' --Addison.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. --Shak.
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. --Shak.
There is nothing more familiar than this. --Locke.
5. Improperly acquainted; wrongly intimate. --Camden.
{Familiar spirit}, a demon or evil spirit supposed to attend at call. --1 Sam. xxviii. 3, 7-9.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
familiar
adjective
1: well known or easily recognized; "a familiar figure"; "familiar songs"; "familiar guests" [ant: {unfamiliar}]
2: within normal everyday experience; common and ordinary; not strange; "familiar ordinary objects found in every home"; "a familiar everyday scene"; "a familiar excuse"; "a day like any other filled with familiar duties and experiences" [ant: {strange}]
3: (usually followed by 'with') well informed about or knowing thoroughly; "conversant with business trends"; "familiar with the complex machinery"; "he was familiar with those roads" [syn: {conversant(p)}, {familiar(p)}]
4: having mutual interests or affections; of established friendship; "on familiar terms"; "pretending she is on an intimate footing with those she slanders" [syn: {intimate}]
noun
1: a person attached to the household of a high official (as a pope or bishop) who renders service in return for support
2: a person who is frequently in the company of another; "drinking companions"; "comrades in arms" [syn: {companion}, {comrade}, {fellow}, {associate}]
3: a spirit (usually in animal form) that acts as an assistant to a witch or wizard [syn: {familiar spirit}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
251 Moby Thesaurus words for "familiar": Bohemian, abreast, accepted, accustomed, acquaintance, acquainted, acquainted with, advocate, affable, alter ego, amicable, amigo, ancestral spirits, angel, arrogant, attendant godling, au courant, au fait, audacious, average, aware, back-number, backer, banal, best friend, bewhiskered, bold, boon, bosom friend, bromidic, brother, buddy-buddy, bumptious, casual, casual acquaintance, chatty, chummy, close, close acquaintance, close friend, cognizant, cold, colloquial, comfortable, common, commonly known, commonplace, confidant, confidante, confidential, conformable, conscious, consuetudinary, control, contumelious, conventional, conversant, conversant with, conversational, cool, cordial, corny, cozy, current, customary, cut-and-dried, daemon, degage, demon, disdainful, disrespectful, easy, easygoing, established, everyday, fade, fairy godmother, familiar spirit, familiar with, favorer, fellow, fellow creature, fellowman, folksy, forward, free, free and easy, frequent, fresh, friend, friendly, fusty, generally accepted, genial, genius, genius domus, genius loci, good angel, good genius, gracious, guardian, guardian angel, guardian spirit, guide, habitual, hackney, hackneyed, hand and glove, hand-in-hand, haymish, homely, homey, household, household gods, hubristic, impertinent, impudent, informal, informed, informed of, inseparable, inseparable friend, insolent, insulting, intimate, intrusive, invisible helper, irregular, lares and penates, lares compitales, lares familiaris, lares permarini, lares praestites, lares viales, loose, lover, manes, mate, mindful, ministering angel, moth-eaten, musty, natural, near, neighbor, neighborly, no stranger to, nonstandard, normal, normative, notorious, numen, obtaining, obtrusive, offhand, offhanded, officious, old hat, ordinary, other self, overpresumptuous, overweening, palsy-walsy, partisan, penates, pickup, plain, platitudinous, popular, predominating, prescribed, prescriptive, presuming, presumptuous, prevailing, prevalent, privy to, procacious, prosaic, proverbial, public, pushy, received, regular, regulation, relaxed, repository, routine, set, simple, snug, sociable, social, special providence, spoken, square, stale, standard, stereotyped, stock, substandard, supporter, sympathizer, talked-about, talked-of, tete-a-tete, thick, thick as thieves, threadbare, time-honored, timeworn, totem, traditional, trite, truistic, tutelar god, tutelary, unaffected, unassuming, unceremonious, unconstrained, unconventional, uneducated, universal, universally admitted, universally recognized, unliterary, unofficial, unoriginal, unreserved, unrestrained, unstudied, up, up on, uppish, uppity, usual, vernacular, versed, warmed-over, well-kenned, well-known, well-recognized, well-understood, well-wisher, well-worn, widely known, widespread, wonted, worn, worn thin
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