associate
verb /əˈsəʊʃɪeɪt 
/ /əˈsəʊsɪeɪt/ [with object] (often associate someone/thing with)
/ /əˈsəʊsɪeɪt/ [with object] (often associate someone/thing with)1Connect (someone or something) with something else in one’s mind: I associated wealth with freedom...
- People have always associated the mind with the technological fad of the moment.
- She turned the phrase over in her mind, trying to associate this broken city with the word ‘home’.
- This kind of system associates capitalistic criteria with social criteria, which will be in conflict.
Synonyms
link, connect, couple, relate, identify, equate, bracket, think of together;
think of in connection with, draw a parallel with, mention in the same breath as, set side by side with
1.1Connect (something) with something else because they occur together or one produces the other: the environmental problems associated with nuclear waste...
- When dwarf faunas are found in the fossil record, they are invariably associated with times of environmental stress.
- Outcomes, qualities, behaviors and numerous other characteristics are commonly associated with success.
- However, repeated messages about smoking cessation over long periods of time are associated with greater success.
1.2 (be associated with) Be involved with: she has been associated with the project from the first...
- Well I mean this is a radio program so you can't see all the visuals that were associated with that.
- And so being associated with that, being able to help shape that, was important to me.
- The pub has been associated with the regatta for many years, and became involved in organising it after it was cancelled a couple of years ago.
Synonyms
mix, keep company, mingle, socialize, get together, go around, rub shoulders, fraternize, consort, have dealings;
North American rub elbows
informal hobnob, run around, hang out, hang around/round, knock about/around, pal up, pal around, chum around, be thick with
British informal hang about
1.3 (associate oneself with) Allow oneself to be connected with or seen to be supportive of: I cannot associate myself with some of the language used...
- So, a word of caution: when making use of this term, recognise what trajectories you are associating yourself with and why.
- Given the present political situation, stars seem to be hesitant to associate themselves with one political group or the other.
- I can see why people don't want to identify with us if this is who they have to associate themselves with.
Synonyms
affiliate, align, connect, join, join up, join forces, attach, combine, team up, band together, be in league, ally, form an alliance, syndicate, federate, consolidate, incorporate, conjoin, merge, integrate
1.4 [no object] Meet or have dealings with someone regarded with disapproval: he began to associate with the Mafia...
- This is not the sort of regime we should be associating with, even on the sports field.
- Scarlett should not be associating with such a punk as he.
- When she thinks her oldest child is associating with someone he should not be, she travels and confronts the bad influence.
noun /əˈsəʊʃɪət / /əˈsəʊsɪət/
/ /əˈsəʊsɪət/1A partner or companion in business or at work: a close associate of the Minister...
- Once initial contact is made, building a close relationship with business associates is key.
- They don't just put on a dinner jacket, stand up in front of a table of business associates, golf cronies, glittery wives and other people they want to impress and wave their chequebook about.
- Their neighbors, co-workers, business associates, etc., should know.
Synonyms
partner, colleague, co-worker, fellow worker, workmate, compatriot, comrade, friend, ally, supporter, wingman, confederate, connection, contact, acquaintance;
accomplice, accessory, abetter, partner in crime, collaborator, colluder, fellow conspirator, henchman;
French confrère
informal crony, pal, chum, buddy
British informal mate, oppo
Australian/New Zealand informal offsider
archaic compeer
rare conniver, consociate
2A person with limited or subordinate membership of an organization: an Associate of the Linnaean Society...
- Subsequent investigation turned up 22 members and associates of white supremacist organizations in the division's ranks.
- We know you are a member of the Resistance, or at least an associate of the organization.
- The associate's term of membership always expires with the term of the full member, so please remember to coordinate your renewals accordingly.
3chiefly Psychology A concept connected with another: the patient was asked to commit to memory a list of five paired associates...
- In this task, listeners heard sets of five paired associates.
- For instance, some experiments have involved the learning of paired associates.
- Two experiments varied the attributes in paired associates lists or sentences.
adjective /əˈsəʊʃɪət / /əˈsəʊsɪət/ [attributive]
/ /əˈsəʊsɪət/ [attributive]1Connected with an organization or business: an associate company...
- The Reserve has been in the traditional associate unit business since 1968, where reservists fly and maintain aircraft owned by the active duty.
- Along with its associate organisations in Karnataka's Jungle Lodges and Resorts, it is also spreading eco-logic in a very pragmatic, and entertaining way.
- It has also brought in other international business names such as Gillette and Samsung as associate sponsors.
1.1Having shared function or membership but with a lesser status: the associate director of the academy...
- The associate membership status has opened the door to a new and untapped market.
- Any new club would now have to apply for associate membership, effectively a probationary period which could last up to three years before full membership is granted.
- The others only qualify for various levels of associate membership.
Derivatives
associability
/ noun ...- These results indicate that learned predictiveness effects in human causal learning index an associability that is specific to a particular class of outcomes.
- A milieu deeply penetrated by interpersonal distrust forestalls the development of associability and mass membership in associations.
- The associability is determined by ignorance; when ignorance is removed by wisdom, the associability will be transformed into dissociability.
associable
/ adjective ...- Manufacturing plans and operations should be associable to part and feature types.
- The microbial community relationships and the consortial functionality are fundamental to the determination and study of the microbiological components associable with the hydrates.
- Moreover a function associable with such ratios was analysed.
associateship
/ /əˈsəʊʃɪətʃɪp / noun ...- Five years passed and his collection of photographs grew until someone spotted a pattern and suggested he could send some to the Royal Photographic Society and seek an associateship.
- She explained that to achieve her associateship, she had to put together a presentation for a panel of judges.
- Funding is available for research grants, spare parts for laboratory equipment, fellowships, associateships, visiting scientists and travel to conferences.
associator
- In this case, it is a pattern associator type network making use of backpropagation for it's learning rule.
- A pattern associator can be trained to respond with a certain output pattern when presented with an input pattern.
- We discover two new identities in degree 7 satisfied by the associator in every alternative algebra and five new identities in degree 7 satisfied by the associator in the Cayley algebra.
Origin
Late Middle English (as a verb in the sense 'join with in a common purpose'; as an adjective in the sense 'allied'): from Latin associat- 'joined', from the verb associare, from ad- 'to' + socius 'sharing, allied'.
social from Late Middle English:
Latin socius ‘companion’ is the base of social and society (mid 16th century); while associate (Late Middle English) comes from closely related associare ‘to unite’. The early history of the word socialism is obscure. The word made its appearance in 1832 in France contrasted with personnalité; three or four years later the modern political sense was attributed to a use by either Leroux or Reybaud in their writings. However, the source has also been attributed to an English use in 1835 during the discussions of a society founded by Robert Owen.