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
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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:
At a San Francisco playground, a stranger tried to befriend an OpenAI employee who was there with their child.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
Don’t miss: Why does almost nobody want to befriend older people like me — except scammers?
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 21, 2026
"The approach now is to try and befriend people, rather than coerce them."
From BBC ● May 20, 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
Sometimes, young men from Burundi would come to the camp with bikes to see if anyone wanted to be taken anywhere, and my brother Alex managed to befriend some of them.
From "How Dare the Sun Rise" by Sandra Uwiringiyimana
He stars alongside Ben Kingsley, whose pompous thespian Trevor Slattery befriends Simon while secretly working with the nefarious Department of Damage Control.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
Ortiz, 42, plays Rocky, an arachnoid alien made of stone-like material, who befriends Grace.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 7, 2026
Despite the risks, Lucas begins carrying coded notes for Madame Garnier and befriends one of the young mothers, Claire, and her baby boy, at the maternity home.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026
Cathy befriends young Heathcliff after her rich, alcoholic father brings him to live and work as a servant on their estate perched atop the windy English moors.
From Salon ● Feb. 14, 2026
As he has no children to play with, he befriends the wild rabbits, offering them food and stroking their fur until he can touch their twitching noses.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
Iger befriended the Lakers’ current head coach JJ Redick when Redick played for the L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026
Aang befriended Zuko, an exiled Fire Nation prince who at first hunted Aang to regain his father’s approval before joining his quarry’s mission to restore peace.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2026
A friend of mine befriended a homeless man and took him in.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026
Over the years, he has befriended sports figures like Mike Tyson, Don King and Herschel Walker.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
“All right,” says Ms. Albright, “Dodger has just befriended Oliver, and he’s bringing him back to the hideout for the first time to meet Fagin and the boys. So. What’s your objective?”
From "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" by Becky Albertalli
Following Kim Il Sung's death, Kim Jong Il rose to become North Korea's supreme leader, and Ko became the country's de-facto first lady, accompanying her husband on military inspections and befriending his entourage.
From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2026
Khalil has spoken at length about befriending Jewish students at Columbia, attending Shabbat dinners and seeing Jewish students as “integral” during the protest movement on campus.
From Salon ● Mar. 12, 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
He avoids them, for they remind him too much of the way his parents choose to live, befriending people not so much because they like them, but because of a past they happen to share.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
