bosom buddy

American

[booz-uhm buhd-ee] / ˈbʊz əm ˈbʌd i /

noun

plural

bosom buddies

a close or intimate friend; bosom friend.

I didn't lack for friends, but had no particular bosom buddy.
Since third grade she and I have been kindred spirits and bosom buddies.
a nefarious associate or co-conspirator.

After the Soviet takeover in 1920, the building was occupied by one of Stalin's bosom buddies.

Etymology

Origin of bosom buddy

First recorded in 1920–25

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.

Charles Lummis, a Harvard dropout and bosom buddy of Teddy Roosevelt’s, had caught malaria in Ohio.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 11, 2022

Grant accepts most of that secondary order, but Kidman's character isn't exactly bosom buddy material either.

From Salon • Oct. 25, 2020

He also warned Democrats that his bosom buddy could win reelection in a 40-state landslide.

From Washington Post • Aug. 12, 2019

In an interview with journalists, Mr. Xi hailed the trust his government had built in Latin America by quoting a Chinese proverb: “A bosom buddy afar brings distant lands near.”

From New York Times • Jul. 28, 2018

Raw and emotional, disinclined toward introspection, he had the kind of gregarious, magnetic personality that instantly won him friends for life; hundreds of individuals—including some he’d met just once or twice—considered him a bosom buddy.

From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023