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Webster 1913 Edition

Friend

Friend

(frĕnd)
,
Noun.
[OE.
frend
,
freond
, AS.
freónd
, prop. p. pr. of
freón
,
freógan
, to love; akin to D.
vriend
friend, OS.
friund
friend,
friohan
to love, OHG.
friunt
friend, G.
freund
, Icel.
frændi
kinsman, Sw.
frände
. Goth.
frijōnds
friend,
frijōn
to love. √83. See
Free
, and cf.
Fiend
.]
1.
One who entertains for another such sentiments of esteem, respect, and affection that he seeks his society and welfare; a wellwisher; an intimate associate; sometimes, an attendant.
Want gives to know the flatterer from the
friend
.
Dryden.
A
friend
that sticketh closer than a brother.
Prov. xviii. 24.
2.
One not inimical or hostile; one not a foe or enemy; also, one of the same nation, party, kin, etc., whose friendly feelings may be assumed. The word is some times used as a term of friendly address.
Friend
, how camest thou in hither?
Matt. xxii. 12.
3.
One who looks propitiously on a cause, an institution, a project, and the like; a favorer; a promoter;
as, a
friend
to commerce, to poetry, to an institution
.
4.
One of a religious sect characterized by disuse of outward rites and an ordained ministry, by simplicity of dress and speech, and esp. by opposition to war and a desire to live at peace with all men. They are popularly called Quakers.
America was first visited by
Friends
in 1656.
T. Chase.
5.
A paramour of either sex.
[Obs.]
Shak.
A friend at court
or
A friend in court
,
one disposed to act as a friend in a place of special opportunity or influence.
–
To be friends with
,
to have friendly relations with.
“He’s . . . friends with Cæsar.”
Shak.
–
To make friends with
,
to become reconciled to or on friendly terms with.
“Having now made friends with the Athenians.”
Jowett (Thucyd.).

Friend

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Friended
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Friending
.]
To act as the friend of; to favor; to countenance; to befriend.
[Obs.]
Fortune
friends
the bold.
Spenser.

Webster 1828 Edition

Friend

FRIEND

,
Noun.
frend.
1.
One who is attached to another by affection; one who entertains for another sentiments of esteem, respect and affection, which lead him to desire his company, and to seek to promote his happiness and prosperity; opposed to foe or enemy.
A friend loveth at all times. Prov. 17.
2.
One not hostile; opposed to an enemy in war.
3.
One reconciled after enmity. Let us be friends again.
4.
An attendant; a companion.
5.
A favorer; one who is propitious; as a friend to commerce; a friend to poetry; a friend to charitable institution.
6.
A favorite. Hushai was David's friend.
7.
A term of salutation; a familiar compellation.
Friend, how camest thou in hither? Matt. 22.
So Christ calls Judas his friend, though a traitor.
Matt. 26.
8.
Formerly, a paramour.
9.
A friend at court, one who has sufficient interest to serve another.

FRIEND

,
Verb.
T.
frend. To favor; to countenance; to befriend; to support or aid. [But we now use befriend.]

Definition 2024

Friend

Friend

See also: friend and Friends

English

Noun

Friend ‎(plural Friends)

  1. A Quaker; a member of the Society of Friends.
  2. (rock-climbing) Brand name of a spring-loaded camming device. Now used (often without initial capital) to refer to any such device.

Proper noun

Friend

  1. A surname​.

Anagrams

friend

friend

See also: Friends and Friend

English

Noun

friend ‎(plural friends)

  1. A person other than a family member, spouse or lover whose company one enjoys and towards whom one feels affection.
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 1, in The Celebrity:
      However, with the dainty volume my quondam friend sprang into fame. At the same time he cast off the chrysalis of a commonplace existence.
    John and I have been friends ever since we were roommates at college.   Trust is important between friends.   I used to find it hard to make friends when I was shy.‎
  2. A boyfriend or girlfriend.
  3. An associate who provides assistance.
    The Automobile Association is every motorist's friend.   The police is every law-abiding citizen's friend.‎
  4. A person with whom one is vaguely or indirectly acquainted
    • 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27:
      The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing", […] and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.
    a friend of a friend;  I added him as a friend on Facebook, but I hardly know him.‎
  5. A person who backs or supports something.
    I’m not a friend of cheap wine.‎
  6. (informal) An object or idea that can be used for good.
    Wiktionary is your friend.‎
  7. (colloquial, ironic, used only in the vocative) Used as a form of address when warning someone.
    You’d better watch it, friend.‎
  8. (object-oriented programming) A function or class granted special access to the private and protected members of another class.
    • 1991, Tom Swan, Learning C++
      But don't take the following sections as an endorsement of friends. Top C++ programmers avoid using friends unless absolutely necessary.
    • 2001, Stephen Prata, C++ primer plus
      In that case, the function needn't (and shouldn't) be a friend.
    • 2008, D S Malik, C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design
      To make a function be a friend to a class, the reserved word friend precedes the function prototype […]
  9. (climbing) A spring-loaded camming device.
    • Since they were introduced in the 1970s, friends have revolutionized climbing, making protection possible in previously impossible places […] — (Rock Climbing Basics, 1995)
  10. (obsolete) A paramour of either sex.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

Synonyms

Antonyms

  • (person whose company one enjoys): enemy, foe, nemesis (nonstandard)
  • (person who provides assistance): enemy, foe

Usage notes

  • We usually make a friend, or make friends with someone. See Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take
  • In older texts and certain dialects, the phrase to friend means "as a friend or an ally", for exampleː "with God to frend (Spenser)". The antonym to the phrase to friend is to fiend.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

friend ‎(third-person singular simple present friends, present participle friending, simple past and past participle friended)

  1. (transitive, obsolete) To act as a friend to, to befriend; to be friendly to, to help.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.ii:
      Lo sluggish Knight the victors happie pray: / So fortune friends the bold [...].
  2. (transitive) To add (a person) to a list of friends on a social networking site; to officially designate (someone) as a friend.
    • 2006, David Fono and Kate Raynes-Goldie, "Hyperfriendship and Beyond: Friends and Social Norms on LiveJournal" (PDF version), Internet Research Annual Volume 4, Peter Lang, ISBN 0820478571, page 99,
      The difference between responses to the statement, "If someone friends me, I will friend them," and "If I friend someone, I expect them to friend me back," is telling.
    • 2006, Kevin Farnham and Dale G. Farnham, Myspace Safety: 51 Tips for Teens And Parents, How-To Primers, ISBN 0977883353, page 69,
      One of the most used features of MySpace is the practice that is nicknamed "friending." If you "friend" someone, then that person is added to your MySpace friends list, and you are added to their friends list.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Translations

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: matter · passed · true · #292: friend · herself · year · dear

Anagrams

Chinese

Etymology

Borrowing from English friend.

Pronunciation

Noun

friend

  1. (Cantonese) friend   (Classifier: 個／个)
    佢係我個friend嚟㗎。 [Cantonese, trad.]
    佢系我个friend嚟㗎。 [Cantonese, simp.]
    Keoi5 hai6 ngo5 go3fen1 lai4 gaa3. [Jyutping]
    He's my friend.

Synonyms

Adjective

friend

  1. (Cantonese) in a close or friendly relationship
    我哋好friend㗎。 [Cantonese]  ―  Ngo5 dei6 hou2fen1 gaa3. [Jyutping]  ―  We are really close.

References

Spanish

Etymology

From English.

Noun

friend m ‎(plural friends)

  1. (climbing) cam

Etymology

From Middle English frende, frend, freond, from Old English frēond ‎(“friend, relative, lover”, literally “loving[-one]”), from Proto-Germanic *frijōndz ‎(“lover, friend”), from Proto-Indo-European *prēy-, *prāy- ‎(“to like, love”), equivalent to free +‎ -nd. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Früünd ‎(“friend”), West Frisian freon, froen, freondinne ‎(“friend”), Dutch vriend ‎(“friend”), Low German Frund, Fründ ‎(“friend, relative”), German Freund ‎(“friend”), Danish frænde ‎(“kinsman”), Swedish frände ‎(“kinsman, relative”), Icelandic frændi ‎(“kinsman”), Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌹𐌾𐍉𐌽𐌳𐍃 ‎(frijōnds, “friend”). More at free.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /fɹɛnd/
  • Rhymes: -ɛnd

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