friend
Americannoun
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a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.
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a person who gives assistance; patron; supporter
friends of the Boston Symphony.
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a person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile.
Who goes there? Friend or foe?
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a member of the same nation, party, etc.
- Synonyms:
- compatriot, confrere, associate, ally
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Friend, a member of the Society of Friends; a Quaker.
The religious practices of Friends are founded in direct communion with God.
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a person associated with another as a contact on a social media website.
We've never met, but we're Facebook friends.
verb (used with object)
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Rare. to befriend.
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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
noun
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a person known well to another and regarded with liking, affection, and loyalty; an intimate
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an acquaintance or associate
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an ally in a fight or cause; supporter
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a fellow member of a party, society, etc
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a patron or supporter
a friend of the opera
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to be friendly (with)
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to become friendly (with)
verb
noun
noun
Usage
Spelling tips for friend The word friend is hard to spell for two reasons. First, it sounds like [ frend ], making it easy to miss the i. Second, even if you know there is an i, it can be difficult to remember the order of the i and the e.How to spell friend: To remember that friend has an i in it, think of the phrase "I see my friends on Friday." Both friend and Friday begin fri-. If you remember that friend has an i in it, but just can't remember where it goes, keep in mind the classic mnemonic device "I before E, except after C."
Related Words
See acquaintance.
Other Word Forms
- friendless adjective
- friendlessness noun
- friendship noun
- nonfriend noun
Etymology
Origin of friend
First recorded 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 ), originally the present participle of frēogan, cognate with Gothic frijōn “to love”
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.
Her baskets are generally not for sale because she only makes them for family and friends, she said.
From Los Angeles Times
“I never really thought when I was cutting tobacco in Augusta, Ky., that I would meet Paul, much less become friends with him,” Clooney says.
From Los Angeles Times
I would invite myself over to a friend’s house who had a television and who would tune into CBS on Saturday nights for their lineup, which started with Carol Burnett.
From Los Angeles Times
As I slid “The Last Chairlift” onto the shelf with the others, I remembered that many years ago a dear friend of mine had studied with John Irving at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
From Los Angeles Times
When Adrian Metoyer first heard government officials describing his best friend as an “active shooter” and threat to his community, he was furious.
From Los Angeles Times
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.
