6 uses
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Definition
obtain (come into the possession of something)
- Gradually, as the cleaning party progressed from the basement to the second-floor bedrooms where Nancy and her mother had been murdered in their beds, they acquired additional fuel for the impending fire-blood-soiled bedclothes, mattresses, a bedside rug, a Teddy-bear doll.2 — Persons Unknown (1% in)
- ...features were the outcome of a car collision in 1950-an accident that left his long-jawed and narrow face tilted, the left side rather lower than the right, with the results that the lips were slightly aslant, the nose askew, and his eyes not only situated at uneven levels but of uneven size, the left eye being truly serpentine, with venomous, sickly-blue squint that although it was involuntarily acquired, seemed nevertheless to warn of bitter sediment at the bottom of his nature.1 — Last To See Them Alive (40% in)
- The answer was that they had very little, for they had by now mostly disposed of the stuff acquired the day of the Kansas City check-passing spree-the camera, the cuff links, the television sets.2 — Persons Unknown (53% in)
- Mrs. Richardson, the office secretary and a very down-to-earth person, had acquired overnight a dainty lot of whispery, tiptoe mannerisms, and the men she served, the sheriff and his staff, Dewey and the imported team of K.B.I. agents, crept about conversing in hushed tones.3 — Answer (35% in)
- But the hands of bidders flickered shyly-work-roughened hands timid of parting with hard-earned cash; yet nothing went unsold, there was even someone keen to acquire a bunch of rusty keys, and a youthful cowboy sporting pale-yellow boots bought Kenyon Clutter's "coyote wagon," the dilapidated vehicle the dead boy had used to harass coyotes, chase them on moonlit nights.4 — The Corner (21% in)
- During the next ten days notches were added in Tullahoma, Tennessee, where they acquired a snappy red Dodge convertible by shooting the owner, a traveling salesman; and in an Illinois suburb of St. Louis, where two more men were slain.4 — The Corner (79% in)
There are no more uses of "acquire" in In Cold Blood.
Typical Usage
(best examples)