befriend

American  

[bih-frend] / bɪˈfrɛnd /

verb (used with object)

1. to make friends or become friendly with; act as a friend to; help; aid.

   to befriend the lonely and the disregarded.

   Synonyms:

   welcome, succor, sustain, encourage, assist, associate, ally

---

befriend British  

/ bɪˈfrɛnd /

verb

1. (tr) to be a friend to; assist; favour

---

Other Word Forms

• unbefriended adjective

Etymology

Origin of befriend

First recorded in 1550–60; be- + friend

Example Sentences

As an adult I acquired a different doppelgänger, not a famous actor but a fellow opinion journalist whom I happened to befriend after moving to New York in the mid-1990s.

From The Wall Street Journal

He befriended the region’s most powerful royals, including Prince Mohammed, who in 2015 pledged to invest $10 billion in Russia’s economy.

From The Wall Street Journal

They were, he recalled in “Making It,” “brave, proud, and unstintingly loyal once they had decided to befriend you.”

From The Wall Street Journal

He befriended the Clash on a tour of London and sat in on the band’s sessions recording their epochal “London Calling” LP.

From Los Angeles Times

The FBI thought the lead was promising enough to launch an undercover investigation, people familiar with it said, with a covert agent befriending the woman’s significant other to elicit new clues.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• advise
• aid
• patronize