nodding acquaintance

noun

1. a slight, incomplete, or superficial knowledge (of something or someone):

   He had only a nodding acquaintance with Italian and didn't trust it to get him through the tour. Although we were neighbors for several years, we had only a nodding acquaintance.

2. a person with whom one is only slightly acquainted:

   I don't really know what he's like—he's only a nodding acquaintance.

Word History and Origins

Origin of nodding acquaintance¹

First recorded in 1860–65

Idioms and Phrases

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]

Example Sentences

Others with whom we have only a nodding acquaintance, not a social relationship, seemed inquisitive and gossipy.

From Washington Post

To sit behind the Resolute Desk requires more than a mayor's nodding acquaintance with issues foreign and domestic.

From Washington Post

He had nodding acquaintance with Watters, due to a personal tragedy.

From Seattle Times

My dealings with Ted were impersonal, although we had a nodding acquaintance from performances we both attended at the New York City Ballet.

From New York Times

She talks on a dais the way she does to buddies over lunch—in a trumpety voice, flattened across mid-American vowels—and has only a nodding acquaintance with many decorums.

From The New Yorker