friend

From Middle English frend, freend, from Old English frēond (“friend”, literally “loving[-one], lover”), from Proto-West Germanic *friund, from Proto-Germanic *frijōndz (“lover, friend”), from Proto-Indo-European *preyH- (“to like, love”), equivalent to free +‎ -nd.

Cognate with Saterland Frisian Fjund, Früünd (“friend”), West Frisian freon, froen, freondinne (“friend”), Dutch vriend (“friend”), Low German Frund, Fründ (“friend, relative”), Luxembourgish Frënd (“friend”), German Freund (“friend”), Danish frænde (“kinsman”), Swedish frände (“kinsman, relative”), Icelandic frændi (“kinsman”), Welsh ffrind (“friend”), Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌹𐌾𐍉𐌽𐌳𐍃 (frijōnds, “friend”). More at free.

Other cognates include Russian прия́тель (prijátelʹ, “friend”) and Sanskrit प्रिय (priyá-, “beloved”).

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: frĕnd, IPA^(key): /fɹɛnd/, [fɹ̥ɛnd̥]

• Audio (RP)

  (file)

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• (dialectal, especially with pin–pen merger) IPA^(key): /frɪnd/[1]
• Rhymes: -ɛnd

friend (plural friends)

1. A person, typically someone other than a family member, spouse or lover, whose company one enjoys and towards whom one feels affection.
   • 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Friendship”, in Essays, volume I:

     The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.

   • 1917, Richard M. Gummere translating Seneca as Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, Loeb Classical Library, Vol. I, No. 3:

     ...if you consider any man a friend whom you do not trust as you trust yourself, you are mightily mistaken and you do not sufficiently understand what true friendship means.

   • 1923, William Armistead Falconer translating Cicero as De Amicitia, Loeb Classical Library, Vol. XX, p. 34:

     ...he who looks upon a true friend, looks, as it were, upon a sort of image of himself. Wherefore friends, though absent, are at hand; though in need, yet abound; though weak, are strong; and—harder saying still—though dead, are yet alive; so great is the esteem on the part of their friends, the tender recollection and the deep longing that still attends them.

   • 1927 Mar. 31, Ernest Hemingway, letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald:

     ...you are my devoted friend too. You do more and work harder and oh shit I'd get maudlin about how damned swell you are. My god I'd like to see you... You're a hell of a good guy.

   • 1933 Dec. 12, Walter Winchell, "On Broadway", Scranton Republican, p. 5:

     Definition of a friend: One who walks in—when the rest of the world walks out.

   John and I have been friends ever since we were roommates at college.   Trust is important between friends.   I used to find it hard to make friends when I was shy.

   We became friends in the war and remain friends to this day.    We were friends with some girls from the other school and stayed friends with them.

2. An associate who provides assistance.

   The Automobile Association is every motorist's friend.   The police is every law-abiding citizen's friend.

3. A person with whom one is vaguely or indirectly acquainted.
   • 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27:

     The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing", […] and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.

   a friend of a friend

   I added him as a friend on Facebook, but I hardly know him.

4. A person who backs or supports something.

   I’m not a friend of cheap wine.

5. (informal) An object or idea that can be used for good.

   Fruit is your friend.

6. (colloquial, ironic, used only in the vocative) Used as a form of address when warning someone.

   You’d better watch it, friend.

7. (object-oriented programming) A function or class granted special access to the private and protected members of another class.
   • 1991, Tom Swan, Learning C++:

     But don't take the following sections as an endorsement of friends. Top C++ programmers avoid using friends unless absolutely necessary.

   • 2001, Stephen Prata, C++ primer plus:

     In that case, the function needn't (and shouldn't) be a friend.

   • 2008, D S Malik, C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design:

     To make a function be a friend to a class, the reserved word friend precedes the function prototype […]

8. (climbing) A spring-loaded camming device.
   • 1995, Rock Climbing Basics:

     Since they were introduced in the 1970s, friends have revolutionized climbing, making protection possible in previously impossible places […]

9. (euphemistic) A lover; a boyfriend or girlfriend.
   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:

     Nor to the motion of a schoolboy's tongue ; Nor never come in visard to my friend

   • 1813, Samuel Foote, The Commissary, Etc., page 17:

     Time has been, when a gentleman wanted a friend, I could supply him with choice in an hour; but the market is spoiled, and a body might as soon produce a hare or a partridge […]

   • 1975, Janis Ian, In the Winter:

     I met your friend. She's very nice, what can I say?

10. (Scotland, obsolete) A relative, a relation by blood or marriage.

    Friends agree best at a distance.

    Make friends of framet folk.

    • 1895, Crockett, Bog-Myrtle, 232:

      He was not a drop's blood to me, though him and my wife were far-out friends.

11. (in the plural, usually preceded by "and") Used to refer collectively to a group of associated individuals, especially those comprising a cast, company, or crew

    Synonyms: and company, et al.

    Meanwhile on The View, Whoopi Goldberg and friends continue to issue forced apologies for their assumptive comments regarding non-profit organisation Turning Point USA...

• friends is found as an invariable plural in the phrases make friends with and be friends with: I am friends with her; He made friends with his co-worker.
• We usually make a friend, or make friends with someone. See Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take
• In older texts and certain dialects, the prepositional phrase to friend means "as a friend or an ally", for exampleː "with God to frend (Spenser)". The antonym to the phrase to friend is to fiend.

• (person whose company one enjoys): See Thesaurus:friend
• (boyfriend or girlfriend): See Thesaurus:lover
• (person with whom you are acquainted): acquaintance, contact
• (person who provides assistance): ally
• (person who backs something): admirer, booster, champion, protagonist, supporter
• (form of address used in warning someone): buster, mate (British), pal, buddy, sonny

• (antonym(s) of “person whose company one enjoys”): See Thesaurus:enemy
• (antonym(s) of “person with whom you are acquainted”): stranger
• (antonym(s) of “person who provides assistance”): enemy, foe

• → Cantonese: friend (fen¹)
• → Finnish: frendi
• → Serbo-Croatian:
  • Latin script: frȅnd
  • Cyrillic script: фре̏нд

friend (third-person singular simple present friends, present participle friending, simple past and past participle friended)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To act as a friend to, to befriend; to be friendly to, to help.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.ii:

     Lo sluggish Knight the victors happie pray: / So fortune friends the bold [...].

   • 1896, Alfred Edward Housman, A Shropshire Lad, section LXII:

     ’Tis true, the stuff I bring for sale
     Is not so brisk a brew as ale:
     Out of a stem that scored the hand
     I wrung it in a weary land.
     But take it: if the smack is sour,
     The better for the embittered hour;
     It should do good to heart and head
     When your soul is in my soul’s stead;
     And I will friend you, if I may,
     In the dark and cloudy day.

2. (transitive) To add (a person) to a list of friends on a social networking site; to officially designate (someone) as a friend.
   • 2006, David Fono and Kate Raynes-Goldie, "Hyperfriendship and Beyond: Friends and Social Norms on LiveJournal" (PDF version), Internet Research Annual Volume 4, Peter Lang, →ISBN, page 99,

     The difference between responses to the statement, "If someone friends me, I will friend them," and "If I friend someone, I expect them to friend me back," is telling.

   • 2006, Kevin Farnham, Dale G. Farnham, Myspace Safety: 51 Tips for Teens And Parents‎, How-To Primers, →ISBN, page 69:

     One of the most used features of MySpace is the practice that is nicknamed "friending." If you "friend" someone, then that person is added to your MySpace friends list, and you are added to their friends list.

• (to act as the friend of): befriend

• (antonym(s) of “social networking”): defriend, unfriend

• “friend”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• Friden, finder, frined, redfin, refin'd, refind

• fd, frd

Borrowed from English friend.

• (Cantonese (alternative)): IPA^(key): /fɹɛːn⁵⁵/

friend

1. (Cantonese) friend (Classifier: 個／个 c)

   佢係我個friend嚟㗎。 [Cantonese, trad.]
   佢系我个friend嚟㗎。 [Cantonese, simp.]

   keoi⁵ hai⁶ ngo⁵ go³ fen¹ lai⁴ gaa³. [Jyutping]

   He's my friend.

   • 我個friend話：「唔會衰嘅，邊有咁容易吖，世界咁多人死又唔見你去死。」 [Cantonese, trad.]
     我个friend话：「唔会衰嘅，边有咁容易吖，世界咁多人死又唔见你去死。」 [Cantonese, simp.]

     From: 2008, 李紫媚 (Jessica Li), 《盜與罪：青少年犯罪預防理論與對策》 (Theft and delinquency: juvenile crime prevention theories and practice), page 180

     ngo⁵ go³ fen¹ waa⁶: “m⁴ wui⁵ seoi¹ ge³, bin¹ jau⁵ gam³ jung⁴ ji⁶ aa¹, sai³ gaai³ gam³ do¹ jan⁴ sei² jau⁶ m⁴ gin³ nei⁵ heoi³ sei².” [Jyutping]

     My friend said, "It's not gonna go wrong. It's not that easy [to go wrong]. There are so many people in the world, and I don't see you dying."

   • 喂，乜你班friend咁踢波嘅，係咪有啲唔對路？ [Cantonese, trad.]
     喂，乜你班friend咁踢波嘅，系咪有啲唔对路？ [Cantonese, simp.]

     From: 2015, Playboy 文 (pseudonym), 《港股策略王》, issue 18, page 69

     wai², mat¹ nei⁵ baan¹ fen¹ gam² tek³ bo¹ ge², hai⁶ mai⁶ jau⁵ di¹ m⁴ deoi³ lou⁶? [Jyutping]

     Hey, how come your friends play soccer like this. Is there some problem?

   • 我個friend叫我去佢屋企坐吓，但又唔話我知佢女友喺度，搞到我變咗做電燈膽。 [Cantonese, trad.]
     我个friend叫我去佢屋企坐吓，但又唔话我知佢女友喺度，搞到我变咗做电灯胆。 [Cantonese, simp.]

     From: 2016, 董德偉, 《英語講呢D》, page 101

     ngo⁵ go³ fen¹ giu³ ngo⁵ heoi³ keoi⁵ uk¹ kei² co⁵ haa⁵, daan⁶ jau⁶ m⁴ waa⁶ ngo⁵ zi¹ keoi⁵ neoi⁵ jau⁵ hai² dou⁶, gaau² dou³ ngo⁵ bin³ zo² zou⁶ din⁶ dang¹ daam². [Jyutping]

     When my friend invited me to hang out at his house but he didn't tell me that his girlfriend would be there too, he made me a third wheel.

2. (Cantonese, always with the classifier) the likes of; something similar to (Classifier: 啲 c)
   • 2021 September 18, Ming Pao‎:

     警方昨向黃發信，指漫畫提到假新聞是從「少年警訊啲friend傳出嚟㗎」，對漫畫的無理指控表達強烈不滿和關注，要求澄清。 [Cantonese, trad.]
     警方昨向黄发信，指漫画提到假新闻是从「少年警讯啲friend传出嚟㗎」，对漫画的无理指控表达强烈不满和关注，要求澄清。 [Cantonese, simp.]

     ging² fong¹ zok³ hoeng³ wong⁴ faat³ seon³, zi² maan⁶ waa^6-2 tai⁴ dou³ gaa² san¹ man⁴ si⁶ cung⁴ “siu³ nin⁴ ging² seon³ di¹ fen¹ cyun⁴ ceot¹ lai⁴ gaa³”, deoi³ maan⁶ waa^6-2 dik¹ mou⁴ lei⁵ zi² hung³ biu² daat⁶ koeng⁴ lit⁶ bat¹ mun⁵ wo⁴ gwaan¹ zyu³, jiu¹ kau⁴ cing⁴ cing¹. [Jyutping]

     The police sent a letter to Wong yesterday, claiming the comic had mentioned that the fake news was “spread out from the likes of Junior Police Call”. They expressed strong dissatisfaction and attention towards the unreasonable accusation by the comic, requesting a clarification.

• (friend):

friend

1. (Cantonese) in a close or friendly relationship

   我哋好friend㗎。 [Cantonese]  ―  ngo⁵ dei⁶ hou² fen¹ gaa³. [Jyutping]  ―  We are really close.

   • 實行用㗎文跟佢friend吓 [Cantonese, trad.]
     实行用㗎文跟佢friend吓 [Cantonese, simp.]

     From: 1985, 許冠傑, 《日本娃娃》

     sat⁶ hang⁴ jung⁶ gaa⁴ man^4-2 gan¹ keoi⁵ fen¹ haa² [Jyutping]

     Used a bit of Japanese to try and make friends with her

   • 「因為你哋五個好似好friend好開心噉喎。」 [Cantonese, trad.]
     「因为你哋五个好似好friend好开心噉㖞。」 [Cantonese, simp.]

     From: 2011, TVB-J2, K-ON！！輕音少女 (K-On!!), season 2, episode 1

     “jan¹ wai⁶ nei⁵ dei⁶ ng⁵ go³ hou² ci⁵ hou² fen¹ hou² hoi¹ sam¹ gam² wo³.” [Jyutping]

     “It's because you five seem so close and happy.”

   • 我叫奧古，和她識了很多年，算係好friend下。 [Cantonese, trad.]
     我叫奥古，和她识了很多年，算系好friend下。 [Cantonese, simp.]

     From: 2013, 董啟章 (Dung Kai-cheung), 《體育時期（劇場版）【上學期】》, page 124

     ngo⁵ giu³ ou³ gu², wo⁴ taa¹ sik¹ liu⁵ han² do¹ nin⁴, syun³ hai⁶ hou² fen¹ haa⁵. [Jyutping]

     My name is Ou Gu. I knew her for many years, so we are pretty close.

   • 我唔想我哋只係喺呢段時間Friend返，我想我哋變返以前咁，Friend到乜都傾，平時大家有啲咩都會搵大家講。 [Cantonese, trad.]
     我唔想我哋只系喺呢段时间Friend返，我想我哋变返以前咁，Friend到乜都倾，平时大家有啲咩都会揾大家讲。 [Cantonese, simp.]

     From: 2015, 少少肥 (pseudonym), 《自修室‧學界嘅蘭桂坊》, page 243

     ngo⁵ m⁴ soeng² ngo⁵ dei⁶ zi² hai⁶ hai² ni¹ dyun⁶ si⁴ gaan³ fen¹ faan¹, ngo⁵ soeng² ngo⁵ dei⁶ bin³ faan¹ ji⁵ cin⁴ gam², fen¹ dou³ mat¹ dou¹ king¹, ping⁴ si⁴ daai⁶ gaa¹ jau⁵ di¹ me¹ dou¹ wui⁵ wan² daai⁶ gaa¹ gong². [Jyutping]

     I don't want us to just be close for this while. I want us to turn back into how we were before, when we were so close that we would chat about anything, when we would normally look for each other to talk if anything happens.

   • 不過始終大家都係細路，好快就friend咗，我個人好易相處，同香港人、印度人都相處到，所以其實讀咩學校都冇問題。 [Cantonese, trad.]
     不过始终大家都系细路，好快就friend咗，我个人好易相处，同香港人、印度人都相处到，所以其实读咩学校都冇问题。 [Cantonese, simp.]

     From: 2016, 喬寶寶, (Q Bobo), 《香港製造》, page 32

     bat¹ gwo³ ci² zung¹ daai⁶ gaa¹ dou¹ hai⁶ sai³ lou⁶, hou² faai³ zau⁶ fen¹ zo², ngo⁵ go³ jan⁴ hou² ji⁶ soeng¹ cyu², tung⁴ hoeng¹ gong² jan⁴, jan³ dou⁶ jan⁴ dou¹ soeng¹ cyu² dou^3-2, so² ji⁵ kei⁴ sat⁶ duk⁶ me¹ hok⁶ haau⁶ dou¹ mou⁵ man⁶ tai⁴. [Jyutping]

     But since everyone is a kid, we quickly became close. I easily get along with others, no matter if it's with Hong Kongers or Indians, so it doesn't matter which school I go to.

• English Loanwords in Hong Kong Cantonese

friend

1. Alternative form of frend

• IPA^(key): /fri͜yːnd/

frīend

1. dative singular of frēond
2. nominative and accusative plural of frēond

Borrowed from English friend.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɾend/ [ˈfɾẽn̪d̪]
• Rhymes: -end

friend m (plural friends)

1. (climbing) cam

friend

1. Alternative form of vriene
   • 1867, “VERSES IN ANSWER TO THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 3, page 100:

     Mye thee friend ne're waant welcome, nor straayart comfoort.

     May thy friend ne'er want welcome, nor the stranger comfort.

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 100