friend
a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.
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.
Friend, a member of the Society of Friends; a Quaker: The religious practices of Friends are founded in direct communion with God.
a person associated with another as a contact on a social media website: We've never met, but we're Facebook friends.
Rare. to befriend.
to add (a person) to one's list of contacts on a social media website: I just friended a couple of guys in my class.
Idioms about friend
make friends with, to enter into friendly relations with; become a friend to.
Origin of friend
1synonym study For friend
word story For friend
Frēond “friend, close acquaintance” has many cognates in Germanic: Old Frisian friūnd, Old Dutch friunt, Old High German friunt, German Freund, Gothic frijonds. Frēond comes from the Old English verb frēogan (also frēon ) “to love, free, set free,” and is a derivative of the Germanic root fri-, frī- (and suffixed form frija- ), which is also the source of English free (the progression of senses is “beloved,” then “one of the loved ones,” then “one not a slave, free”).
Old English fēond originally meant “enemy, foe” (and so was the opposite of friend ), and especially in Old English poetry, “Satan, the Devil” (in Beowulf the devil is referred to as fēond moncynnes “the enemy of mankind”). Fēond has many cognates in Germanic: Old Frisian fiand, Dutch vijand, German Feind, all meaning “enemy.” Fēond comes from the Old English verb fēogan “to hate,” from a Germanic root fī - (from a very complicated Proto-Indo-European root pē-, pēi-, pī- “to hurt, harm”).
Etymologically speaking, then, friend and fiend are acquaintances, and not relatives.
Other words for friend
Opposites for friend
Other words from friend
- friend·less, adjective
- friend·less·ness, noun
- non·friend, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use friend in a sentence
How can I get my kids off their electronic devices and outside to play with their friends instead of friending them online?
Facebook Aims Low, May Allow the Under-13 Crowd to Sign Up | Lauren Ashburn | June 5, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTWhat friending was 't you gave us on the day You drove us out of Athens?
The Mortal Gods and Other Plays | Olive Tilford DarganAll the time I knew perfectly well that the great show of honour and "friending" was not for me alone.
But all the time I knew perfectly well that the great show of honor and "friending" was not for me alone.
The Story of My Life | Ellen Terry
British Dictionary definitions for friend (1 of 3)
/ (frɛnd) /
a person known well to another and regarded with liking, affection, and loyalty; an intimate
an acquaintance or associate
an ally in a fight or cause; supporter
a fellow member of a party, society, etc
a patron or supporter: a friend of the opera
be friends to be friendly (with)
make friends to become friendly (with)
(tr) an archaic word for befriend
Origin of friend
1Derived forms of friend
- friendless, adjective
- friendlessness, noun
- friendship, noun
British Dictionary definitions for Friend (2 of 3)
/ (frɛnd) /
a member of the Religious Society of Friends; Quaker
British Dictionary definitions for Friend (3 of 3)
/ (frɛnd) /
trademark mountaineering 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 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with friend
In addition to the idiom beginning with friend
- friend in court
also see:
- fair-weather friend
- make friends
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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