befriend
Americanverb (used with object)
-
befriends,
present (3rd person singular)
-
befriended,
past participle, past
-
befriending
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
befriendsimple
-
befriendssimple
-
have befriendedperfect
-
has befriendedperfect
-
am befriendingprogressive
-
are befriendingprogressive
-
is befriendingprogressive
-
have been befriendingperfect progressive
-
has been befriendingperfect progressive
Past
-
befriendedsimple
-
had befriendedperfect
-
was befriendingprogressive
-
were befriendingprogressive
-
had been befriendingperfect progressive
Future
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.
See Examples For:
You’re not out to fleece anyone with egregiously high commissions or merely befriend another member because you want to flog the latest financial product.
From MarketWatch ● May 29, 2026
“They befriend you and say all the right things to get to you,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 18, 2026
In a similar leap, Jimmy and Alice forgive and befriend Goldstein’s Louis, the man who crashed his car into Tia’s and killed her.
From Salon ● Feb. 7, 2026
He also suggested that library security befriend and train nearby retailers to report any suspicious activity, especially involving art.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025
I hoped for a while to befriend her.
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
Once she settles in, the girl befriends other spirits and wins them over with her acceptance and understanding — including a few shunned by everyone else, like the famous No-Face.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2026
She spends her nights cleaning the local aquarium, where she befriends a Pacific octopus named Marcellus.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 7, 2026
He befriends Mr. Durand, who owns the station with his partner, Emma, a British researcher, and makes it his mission to keep their station going and the forest around it intact.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 29, 2026
The BFG tells the story of a young orphan named Sophie who befriends a giant and they embark on a mission together to stop other giants from eating children.
From BBC ● Jan. 29, 2025
Insects are beset not only by viruses and bacteria but also by fungi, protozoa, microscopic worms, and other beings from all that unseen world of minute life that, by and large, befriends mankind.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
Irish actor Brenda Fricker, who won an Oscar for her role in “My Left Foot” and whose Pigeon Lady befriended Macaulay Culkin‘s Kevin McCallister in “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” has died.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
A friend of mine befriended a homeless man and took him in.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026
Around 2016, he befriended a couple running an events arena, and started supplying them calves for shows.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026
His family moved from the Southeast part of Washington DC when Armstrong was young and later settled in a largely white neighbourhood in Maryland, where he befriended a soccer coach's son.
From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2026
She could eat chicken because she had never befriended one.
From "A Place to Belong" by Cynthia Kadohata
While Aang’s saga follows the trajectory of Western fantasies that revolve around a Chosen One, his stubborn insistence on nonviolence and befriending perceived enemies reflects Miyazaki’s reverence for empathy, innocence and life’s natural beauty.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2026
Imagine a 21st century take on Margaret Mead befriending Samoans, only with cozy knit sweaters and a dash of animation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 21, 2026
“She was someone who was very interested in befriending others for status, more so than being a friend,” one classmate recalled.
From Slate ● Dec. 18, 2025
Henry bides his time, watching other subjects closely before befriending Eleven.
From BBC ● Nov. 26, 2025
The reasons for that are complicated, and Tony gave them flesh and blood by befriending some Mexican kitchen workers at a restaurant owned by an earlier, successful immigrant from Greece.
From "Class Matters" by The New York 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.
