befriend
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of befriend
Explanation
There are many ways to make someone your friend. You can offer assistance with a project, or provide comfort at a time of loss. Perhaps the easiest way to befriend someone, however, is just to smile and say "hi." The prefix "be-" is from Old English, and has several meanings. In befriend, the meaning is "cause to be," so to befriend someone is to cause him or her to be your friend. Mahatma Gandhi once said, “It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.”
Vocabulary lists containing befriend
Harry Belafonte (1927–2023) Tribute List
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"Sordid" and "Blatant" Attacks: Ten Words in the News You Need to Know
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Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It ends: Befriend us, Ben, be kind unto us now;Inspire thy chair, from thy Elisian bough …And whatsoere we swill, carouse or quaff,May act thy verse and live thy epitaph.
From The Guardian • Jul. 4, 2013
Befriend Shoppers Mobile-friendly sites are a worthwhile investment: 67% of mobile users are more likely to make purchases from a site that is mobile-friendly, according to 2012 study sponsored by .
From Forbes • Apr. 8, 2013
The chapter titles take the form of instructions to the reader: "Move to the city", "Get an education", "Work for yourself", "Befriend a bureaucrat", and so on.
From The Guardian • Mar. 28, 2013
Her viewers feel as if they have crossed a desert of Fight or Flight and found an oasis of Tend and Befriend.
From Time Magazine Archive
"Befriend you?—Not with your hands of that colour!"
From Supplement to "Punch", 16th December 1914 The Unspeakable Turk by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
