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hail-fellow-well-met

British  

adjective

  1. genial and familiar, esp in an offensive or ingratiating way

    a hail-fellow-well-met slap on the back

"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

hail-fellow-well-met Cultural  
  1. A term describing a person who is superficially friendly and is always trying to gain friends. Such a person may also be referred to as a “glad-hander.”


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:

Regardless of that, between this and the extended hail-fellow-well-met tight-twos by his buds, the lead-up took on the feeling of a wake or a “get well” rally for someone who recently emerged from a coma.

From Salon Mar. 5, 2023

George Drance’s Agamemnon exudes a hail-fellow-well-met energy, without any of the smoothed-over barbarity you might expect.

From New York Times Apr. 3, 2022

What made things even tougher for Strong is that he is not a hail-fellow-well-met the way Brown was throughout his coaching career.

From Washington Post Nov. 23, 2016

The current Majority Leader is a hail-fellow-well-met operator who is smart and well liked across the conference.

From The Wall Street Journal Sep. 25, 2015

“Well!” said Mr. Trabb, in a hail-fellow-well-met kind of way.

From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens

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