friend

[ frend ]
See synonyms for: friendfriendsfriendlessnessfriendless on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.

  2. a person who gives assistance; patron; supporter friends of the Boston Symphony.

  1. a person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile: Who goes there? Friend or foe?

  2. a member of the same nation, party, etc.

  3. Friend, a member of the Society of Friends; a Quaker: The religious practices of Friends are founded in direct communion with God.

  4. 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)
  1. Rare. to befriend.

  2. 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 about friend

  1. make friends with, to enter into friendly relations with; become a friend to.

Origin of friend

1
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”

synonym study For friend

1. See acquaintance.

word story For friend

Friend and fiend have identical formations: They are both in origin present participles used as nouns, Old English frēond (also frīend ) for friend, and fēond (also fīend ) for fiend. The two nouns even occur together in Old English alliterative verse: Se fēond and se frēond “the fiend and the friend.”
Frēond “friend, close acquaintance” has many cognates in Germanic: Old Frisian friūnd, Old Dutch friunt, Old High German friunt, German Freund, Gothic frijonds. Frēond comes from the Old English verb frēogan (also frēon ) “to love, free, set free,” and is a derivative of the Germanic root fri-, frī- (and suffixed form frija- ), which is also the source of English free (the progression of senses is “beloved,” then “one of the loved ones,” then “one not a slave, free”).
Old English fēond originally meant “enemy, foe” (and so was the opposite of friend ), and especially in Old English poetry, “Satan, the Devil” (in Beowulf the devil is referred to as fēond moncynnes “the enemy of mankind”). Fēond has many cognates in Germanic: Old Frisian fiand, Dutch vijand, German Feind, all meaning “enemy.” Fēond comes from the Old English verb fēogan “to hate,” from a Germanic root fī - (from a very complicated Proto-Indo-European root pē-, pēi-, pī- “to hurt, harm”).
Etymologically speaking, then, friend and fiend are acquaintances, and not relatives.

Other words for friend

Opposites for friend

Other words from friend

  • friend·less, adjective
  • friend·less·ness, noun
  • non·friend, noun

Words Nearby friend

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use friend in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for friend (1 of 3)

friend

/ (frɛnd) /


noun
  1. a person known well to another and regarded with liking, affection, and loyalty; an intimate

  2. an acquaintance or associate

  1. an ally in a fight or cause; supporter

  2. a fellow member of a party, society, etc

  3. a patron or supporter: a friend of the opera

  4. be friends to be friendly (with)

  5. make friends to become friendly (with)

verb
  1. (tr) an archaic word for befriend

Origin of friend

1
Old English frēond; related to Old Saxon friund, Old Norse frǣndi, Gothic frijōnds, Old High German friunt

Derived forms of friend

  • friendless, adjective
  • friendlessness, noun
  • friendship, noun

British Dictionary definitions for Friend (2 of 3)

Friend1

/ (frɛnd) /


noun
  1. a member of the Religious Society of Friends; Quaker

British Dictionary definitions for Friend (3 of 3)

Friend2

/ (frɛnd) /


noun
  1. trademark mountaineering a device consisting of a shaft with double-headed spring-loaded cams that can be wedged in a crack to provide an anchor point

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

Other Idioms and Phrases with friend

friend

In addition to the idiom beginning with friend

  • friend in court

also see:

  • fair-weather friend
  • make friends

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.