associate

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To join as a partner, ally, or friend.
2. v. To connect or join together; combine.
3. v. To connect in the mind or imagination: "I always somehow associate Chatterton with autumn” ( John Keats).
4. v. To join in or form a league, union, or association. See Synonyms at join.
5. v. To spend time socially; keep company: associates with her coworkers on weekends.
6. n. A person united with another or others in an act, enterprise, or business; a partner or colleague.
7. n. A companion; a comrade.
8. n. One that habitually accompanies or is associated with another; an attendant circumstance.
9. n. A member of an institution or society who is granted only partial status or privileges.
10. n. An associate's degree.
11. adj. Joined with another or others and having equal or nearly equal status: an associate editor.
12. adj. Having partial status or privileges: an associate member of the club.
13. adj. Following or accompanying; concomitant.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To join in company, as a friend, companion, partner, confederate, or the like; join or connect intimately; unite; combine; link: followed by with (formerly sometimes by to): as, to associate others with us in business or in an enterprise; particles of earthy matter associated with other substances.
2. To keep company with; attend.
3. To make an associate of; admit to association or membership: with to: as, “he was associated to the Royal Academy,”
4. To have intercourse; be an associate or associates: implying intimacy: as, congenial minds are disposed to associate.
5. To join in or form a confederacy or association.
6. In general, to unite, as in action, with a person or thing, or to coexist in organic dependence, as the parts of the body.
7. Joined in interest, object or purpose, office or employment; combined together; joined with another or others: as, an associate judge or professor; “my associate powers,”
8. In pathology, connected by habit or sympathy: as, associate movements, that is, movements which occur sympathetically, in consequence of preceding motions: thus, convergence of the eyes is associated with contraction of the pupils.
9. n. A companion; one who is on terms of intimacy with another; a mate; a fellow.
10. n. A partner in interest, as in business; a confederate; an accomplice; an ally: as, “their defender and his associates,”
11. n. One who shares an office or a position of authority or responsibility; a colleague or coadjutor.
12. n. One who is admitted to a subordinate degree of membership in an association or institution: as, an Associate of the Royal Academy, or of the National Academy of Design.
13. n. Anything usually accompanying or associated with another.
14. n. Synonyms and Associate, Friend, Companion, Comrade, Fellow, Partner, Ally, Colleague, Coadjutor, Confederate, Associate is the most general word for persons who are connected in life, work, etc.; it is special only in suggesting an alliance of some permanence. Friend is the most general word for persons who, through community of life or otherwise, have kindly feelings toward each other. Companion, literally a messmate, applies where the persons are much thrown together, but are not united by any strong tie; hence it is not a good synonym for husband or wife. “Many men may be admitted as companions who would not be altogether fit as associates,” Crabb, Eng. Synonymes, p. 197. Comrade denotes a close companion; it implies freedom of intercourse and a good degree of friendship: as, comrades in arms. Fellow has nearly lost its early signification of agreeable companionship, the later meanings having overshadowed it: as, “a bettre felawe schulde men noght fynde,” Compare fellow-feeling, fellow-helper, fellowship. Fellow in this connection may mean one who naturally would be or is a companion: as, why do you not go with your fellows? A partner is one who takes part with others, especially in business or in any kind of joint ownership. Formerly ally was nearly equivalent in meaning to associate, but it is now applied chiefly to states or rulers in their public capacity: as, the allies in the Crimean war. A colleague is an associate for some specific purpose or in some office; it is, like coadjutor, properly applicable only to one engaged in labor or business regarded as especially dignified: as, Senators A and B were colleagues; Luther and his coadjutors. A confederate is one somewhat formally associated with others, now usually, when applied to private relations, for a bad object. See accomplice.
15. n. In logic, a unit not contained in the collection which is paired with each unit, of the collection so as to make a pair distinguished from every pair consisting of the associate and a unit not a member of the collection. Thus if we consider a number of indistinguishable regular tetrahedrons each with a point at its center, the point at the center of any one of these is an associate of the collection of its summits. According as the pairs of the associate with the different units of the collection are all, some but not all, or none, distinguished from one another, it may be called a discrete pair associate, a various pair associate, or a uniform pair associate; but Kempe terms the last two multiple pair associate and single pair associate.
16. n. In law: An officer in each of the superior courts of common law in England whose duty it was to keep the records of his court, to attend its nisi prius sittings, and to enter the verdict, make up the postea, and deliver the record to the party entitled thereto.
17. n. A person associated with the judges and clerks of assize in commission of general jail delivery.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Joined with another or others and having equal or nearly equal status.
2. adj. Having partial status or privileges.
3. adj. Following or accompanying; concomitant.
4. n. A person united with another or others in an act, enterprise, or business; a partner or colleague.
5. n. A companion; a comrade.
6. n. One that habitually accompanies or is associated with another; an attendant circumstance.
7. n. A member of an institution or society who is granted only partial status or privileges.
8. v. intransitive To join in or form a league, union, or association.
9. v. intransitive To spend time socially; keep company.
10. v. transitive To join as a partner, ally, or friend.
11. v. transitive To connect or join together; combine.
12. v. transitive To connect in the mind or imagination
13. v. reflexive To endorse.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To join with one, as a friend, companion, partner, or confederate.
2. v. To join or connect; to combine in acting.
3. v. To connect or place together in thought.
4. v. obsolete To accompany; to keep company with.
5. v. To unite in company; to keep company, implying intimacy.
6. v. To unite in action, or to be affected by the action of a different part of the body.
7. adj. Closely connected or joined with some other, as in interest, purpose, employment, or office; sharing responsibility or authority.
8. adj. Admitted to some, but not to all, rights and privileges.
9. adj. (Physiol.) Connected by habit or sympathy.
10. n. A companion; one frequently in company with another, implying intimacy or equality; a mate; a fellow.
11. n. A partner in interest, as in business; or a confederate in a league.
12. n. One connected with an association or institution without the full rights or privileges of a regular member.
13. n. Anything closely or usually connected with another; an concomitant.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. keep company with; hang out with
2. n. a friend who is frequently in the company of another
3. v. make a logical or causal connection
4. adj. having partial rights and privileges or subordinate status
5. n. a person with subordinate membership in a society, institution, or commercial enterprise
6. n. a degree granted by a two-year college on successful completion of the undergraduates course of studies
7. n. a person who joins with others in some activity or endeavor
8. v. bring or come into association or action
9. n. any event that usually accompanies or is closely connected with another