All 3 Uses of
acquire
in
The Birthmark
- Until now he had not been aware of the tyrannizing influence acquired by one idea over his mind, and of the lengths which he might find in his heart to go for the sake of giving himself peace.†
acquired = obtained (came into possession of)
- a philosopher who should go deep enough to acquire the power would attain too lofty a wisdom to stoop to the exercise of it.
*acquire = obtain (come into possession of)
- All these antique naturalists stood in advance of their centuries, yet were imbued with some of their credulity, and therefore were believed, and perhaps imagined themselves to have acquired from the investigation of Nature a power above Nature, and from physics a sway over the spiritual world.†
acquired = obtained (came into possession of)
Definition:
obtain (come into the possession of something)