blood brother

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR blood brother ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a person's brother by birth.

a male person bound to another by ties of great friendship.

something usually associated with or thought to exist inseparably from another thing, quality, circumstance, etc.: Humility is often the blood brother of patience.

a male established in a close relationship with another male through the performance of a specific ritual, as the commingling of blood.

Nearby words

blood alcohol concentration, blood and thunder, blood bank, blood bath, blood blister, blood brother, blood capillary, blood cell, blood clot, blood count, blood crystal

Origin of blood brother

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400

Related forms

blood brotherhood, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for blood brother

He tells them to prepare a great feast, as his blood-brother, Ncossi, is invited to come and bring his people.
Mpuke, Our Little African Cousin|Mary Hazelton Wade
Herein he is as unaccountable as the gray wolf, who is his blood-brother.
Life's Handicap|Rudyard Kipling
Would that you had clung to Lousta, my blood-brother and my friend, whom you lament, and left me alone.
She and Allan|H. Rider Haggard
Something—the blood-brother of death—had been here on this planet, that much was certain.
Thompson's Cat|Robert Moore Williams

“You are a great chief, but we love you as a blood-brother,” she answered gravely, and lifted the shell bowl to her lips.
White Shadows in the South Seas|Frederick O'Brien

British Dictionary definitions for blood brother

blood brother

noun

a brother by birth

a man or boy who has sworn to treat another as his brother, often in a ceremony in which their blood is mingled

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012