associate

1. not comparableJoined with another or others and having lower status.

   The associate editor is someone who has some experience in editing but not sufficient experience to qualify for a senior post.

2. not comparableHaving partial status or privileges.

   He is an associate member of the club.

3. not comparableFollowing or accompanying; concomitant.
4. datednot comparablebiologyConnected by habit or sympathy.

   associate motions

   motions that occur sympathetically, in consequence of preceding motions

   1 more example

   These associate ideas are gradually formed into habits of acting together, by frequent repetition, while they are yet separately obedient to the will; as is evident from the difficulty we experience in gaining so exact an idea of the front of St. Paul's church, as to be able to delineate it with accuracy, or in recollecting a poem of a few pages.

   1794, Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia; Or, The Laws of Organic Life, page 36

plural associates

1. A person united with another or others in an act, enterprise, or business; a partner or employee.

   Associates must wash hands before returning to work

   2 more examples

   Allow me to introduce my business associates, Alice and Bob, who are senior VPs for ops and strategy, respectively.

   The frowning lookes of fiery Tamburlaine, That with his terrour and imperious eies, Commands the hearts of his aſſociates, […]

   c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act IIII, scene i

2. Somebody with whom one works, coworker, colleague.
3. A companion; a comrade.
4. One that habitually accompanies or is associated with another; an attendant circumstance.
5. A member of an institution or society who is granted only partial status or privileges.
6. algebraOne of a pair of elements of an integral domain (or a ring) such that the two elements are divisible by each other (or, equivalently, such that each one can be expressed as the product of the other with a unit).
7. African-American VernacularA casual friend, acquaintance

present singular third person associates · participle present associating · participle past associated · past associated

1. intransitiveTo join in or form a league, union, or association.
2. intransitiveTo spend time socially; keep company.

   She associates with her coworkers on weekends.

   2 more examples

   Before the race he associated only with other skiers.

   As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish,[…]. My servant is, so far as I am concerned, welcome to as many votes as he can get.[…]I do not suppose that it matters much in reality whether laws are made by dukes or cornerboys, but I like, as far as possible, to associate with gentlemen in private life.

   1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms: surround, forgather

3. transitiveTo join as a partner, ally, or friend.

   He associated his name with many environmental causes.

4. transitiveTo connect or join together; combine.

   particles of gold associated with other substances

   Synonyms: attach, join, put together, unite, accouple, affix, assemble, attach

5. transitiveTo connect evidentially, or in the mind or imagination.

   I always somehow associate Chatterton with autumn.

   1819 September 21, John Keats, letter to John Hamilton Reynolds

   4 more examples

   He succeeded in associating his name inseparably with some names which will last as long as our language.

   1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James II

   A branch of rail transport that seems to been rather neglected by historians is that concerned with cliff railways, of which a fair number exist in Great Britain. This is probably because these lines are overshadowed by the more spectacular funicular railways in Switzerland and other mountainous regions; perhaps, too, because of the general habit of referring to them as "cliff lifts," which tends to associate them with the vertical indoor type.

   1951 August, P. W. Gentry, “Cliff Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 514

   The economics of rebuilding all the stations covered by the electrification would be prohibitive, but to help bring home to the Glasgow public that their North Clyde suburban service has been transformed, not merely re-equipped with new trains, stations have at least been associated psychologically with the rolling stock by a common colour scheme.

   1960 December, “The Glasgow Suburban Electrification is opened”, in Trains Illustrated, page 714

   Surprisingly, this analysis revealed that acute exposure to solvent vapors at concentrations below those associated with long-term effects appears to increase the risk of a fatal automobile accident.

   2013 July-August, Philip J. Bushnell, “Solvents, Ethanol, Car Crashes & Tolerance”, in American Scientist

6. reflexiveTo endorse.

   She refused to associate herself with the petition.

   1 more example

   Mr. President, I rise to associate myself with the remarks of my senior Senator from Louisiana who has led this fight successfully for many years

   1999 August 4-5, Congress, “Pt. 14”, in Congressional Record, volume 145, page 19343

7. mathematicsTo be associative.
8. obsoletetransitiveTo accompany; to be in the company of.

   Friends should associate friends in grief and woe

   c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]

   Synonyms: travel

plural Associates

1. slangAn associate's degree.