friend

[frend] /frɛnd/
noun
1.
a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.
2.
a person who gives assistance; patron; supporter:
friends of the Boston Symphony.
3.
a person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile:
Who goes there? Friend or foe?
4.
a member of the same nation, party, etc.
5.
(initial capital letter) a member of the Religious Society of Friends; a Quaker.
6.
a person associated with another as a contact on a social-networking website:
We've never met, but we're Facebook friends.
verb (used with object)
7.
Rare. to befriend.
8.
to add (a person) to one's list of contacts on a social-networking website:
I just friended a couple of guys in my class.
Idioms
9.
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
friendless, adjective
friendlessness, noun
nonfriend, noun
Synonyms
1. comrade, chum, crony, confidant. See acquaintance. 2. backer, advocate. 4. ally, associate, confrere, compatriot.
Antonyms
1, 4. enemy, foe.
Examples from the web for friend
  • Without a friend to counsel him, the temptation proved irresistible.
  • Once, if you wanted to borrow money, you had either to visit a bank or to tap a rich friend or relative.
  • There is a risk that in their discomfort governments turn to an old, but false, friend: protectionism.
  • Submersible craft in the early years of their development were perilous to friend and foe alike.
  • It was a close friend, saying he had been diagnosed with lung cancer.
  • So an economic downturn is no friend of the environment.
  • We can easily find a friend's face among dozens or hundreds of unfamiliar faces in a busy street.
  • Sit chatting with a friend, and the hours can zip by.
  • Anecdotally, my friend's retired racing greyhound could always find his favorite ball fairly quickly even when he couldn't see it.
  • After the meeting the chairman goes to the pub with his friend.
British Dictionary definitions for friend

friend

/frɛnd/
noun
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)
verb
8.
(transitive) an archaic word for befriend
Derived Forms
friendless, adjective
friendlessness, noun
friendship, noun
Word Origin
Old English frēond; related to Old Saxon friund, Old Norse frǣndi, Gothic frijōnds, Old High German friunt

Friend1

/frɛnd/
noun
1.
a member of the Religious Society of Friends; Quaker

Friend2

/frɛnd/
noun
1.
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
Word Origin and History for friend
n.

Old English freond "friend," present participle of freogan "to love, to favor," from Proto-Germanic *frijojanan "to love" (cf. Old Norse frændi, Old Frisian friund, Middle High German friunt, German Freund, Gothic frijonds "friend," all alike from present participle forms). Related to Old English freo "free" (see free (adj.)).

Meaning "a Quaker" (a member of the Society of Friends) is from 1670s. Feond ("fiend," originally "enemy") and freond often were paired alliteratively in Old English; both are masculine agent nouns derived from present participle of verbs, but are not directly related to one another (see fiend). Related: Friends.

v.

in the Facebook sense, attested from 2005, from the noun, but friend has been used as a verb in English since late 14c. Related: Friended; friending. Old English had freonsped "an abundance of friends" (see speed (n.)); freondleast "want of friends;" freondspedig "rich in friends", all of which would be useful now.

friend in Technology


Relationship between classes in the language C++.

Idioms and Phrases with friend

friend

In addition to the idiom beginning with
friend
also see: