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Friend

[frend]

Origin

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noun

a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.

a person who gives assistance; patron; supporter: friends of the Boston Symphony.

a person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile: Who goes there? Friend or foe?

a member of the same nation, party, etc.

(initial capital letter) a member of the Religious Society of Friends; a Quaker.

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a person associated with another as a contact on a social-networking Web site: We've never met, but we're Facebook friends.

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verb (used with object)

Rare. to befriend.

to add (a person) to one's list of contacts on a social-networking Web site: I just friended a couple of guys in my class.

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Friend is one of our favorite verbs.

So is fletcherise. Does it mean:

to expurgate (a written work) by removing or modifying passages considered vulgar or objectionable.

to chew (food) slowly and thoroughly.

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Idiom

make friends with, to enter into friendly relations with; become a friend to.

Origin:
before 900; Middle English friend, frend, Old English frēond friend, lover, relative (cognate with Old Saxon friund, Old High German friunt (German Freund), Gothic frijōnds), orig. present participle of frēogan, cognate with Gothic frijōn to love

Related forms

friend·less, adjective

friend·less·ness, noun

non·friend, noun

Synonyms
1. comrade, chum, crony, confidant. See acquaintance. 2. backer, advocate. 4. ally, associate, confrere, compatriot.

Antonyms
1, 4. enemy, foe.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To Friend

Collins

World English Dictionary

friend (frɛnd)

—n
1.	a person known well to another and regarded with liking, affection, and loyalty; an intimate
2.	an acquaintance or associate
3.	an ally in a fight or cause; supporter
4.	a fellow member of a party, society, etc
5.	a patron or supporter: a friend of the opera
6.	be friends to be friendly (with)
7.	make friends to become friendly (with)

—vb
8.	(tr) an archaic word for befriend

[Old English frēond; related to Old Saxon friund, Old Norse frǣndi, Gothic frijōnds, Old High German friunt]

'friendless

—*adj*

'friendlessness

—n

'friendship

—n

Friend¹ (frɛnd)

—n
	a member of the Religious Society of Friends; Quaker

Friend² (frɛnd)

—n
	mountaineering trademark a device consisting of a shaft with double-headed spring-loaded cams that can be wedged in a crack to provide an anchor point

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

friend

O.E. freond, prp. of freogan "to love, to favor," from P.Gmc. *frijojanan "to love" (cf. O.N. frændi, O.Fris. friund, M.H.G. friunt, Ger. Freund, Goth. frijonds "friend," all alike from prp. forms). Related to O.E. freo "free." Meaning "a Quaker" (a member of the Society of Friends) is from 1670s.

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Feond ("fiend," originally "enemy") and freond often were paired alliteratively in O.E.; both are masculine agent nouns derived from prp. of verbs, but are not directly related to one another. Related: Friends. As a verb, in the Facebook sense, attested from 2005.

COLLAPSE

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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