hail fellow well met

• hail-fellow-well-met

hail fellow well met (plural hail fellows well met)

1. A sociable, friendly, usually male person.
   • 1939, Henry Miller, Tropic of Capricorn, Grove Press, published 1962, page 150:

     All his life he had been a jolly hail fellow well met: he had put on a rather becoming paunch, his cheeks were well filled out and red as a beet, his manners were easy and indolent, and he seemed destined to live on into a ripe old age, sound and healthy as a nut.

   • 1990, James Weldon Johnson, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, Penguin, →ISBN, page 60:

     I was a hail fellow well met with all of the workmen at the factory, most of whom knew little and cared less about social distinctions.