friend

noun

1. A person, typically someone other than a family member, spouse or lover, whose company one enjoys and towards whom one feels affection.

   “"[…]if you have any wish to speak openly to me as a friend, or to ask my opinion of any thing that you may have in contemplation—as a friend, indeed, you may command me.—I will hear whatever you like. I will tell you exactly what I think." "As a friend!"—repeated Mr. Knightley.—"Emma, that I fear is a word—No, I have no wish—[…]””

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

   “...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.”

   “...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.”

   “...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.”

2. An associate who provides assistance; patron, mentor.

   “When I was a child of seven years old, my friends, on a holiday, filled my little pocket with halfpence.”

   “The vicious propensities—the want of principle which he was careful to guard from the knowledge of his best friend, could not escape the observation of a young man of nearly the same age with himself, and who had opportunities of seeing him in unguarded moments, which Mr. Darcy could not have.”

   “There was a Boy whose name was Jim; His Friends were very good to him. They gave him Tea, and Cakes, and Jam, And slices of delicious Ham, And Chocolate with pink inside, And little Tricycles to ride, And read him Stories through and through, And even took him to the Zoo—”

   “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.

   “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 as a form of address when warning someone.

   “You’d better watch it, friend.”

7. A function or class granted special access to the private and protected members of another class.

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

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

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

8. A spring-loaded camming device.

   “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.

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

   “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 […]”

   “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.”

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

11. (in-plural)Used to refer collectively to a group of associated individuals, especially those comprising a cast, company, or crew

    “Meanwhile on The View, Whoopi Goldberg and friends continue to spout their takes on the hot topics of the day.”

    “Russia and friends continued to criticize the work of the JIM, focusing in particular on the methodology employed and the decision of the experts not to go to certain on-site visits for security reasons[…]”

12. A Quaker; a member of the Society of Friends. (See also Friends.)
13. Brand name of a spring-loaded camming device, now used to refer to any such device, often uncapitalized, as friend.

verb

1. (obsolete, transitive)To act as a friend to, to befriend; to be friendly to, to help.

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

   “’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.

   “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.”

   “The two distributions which exhibited this property were in response to the statements, “I am careful about who I friend,” and, “If someone friends me, I will friend them.” (Figure 3).”

   “I use Native, that’s what other Native people on Facebook use. I have 660 friends. Tons of Native friends in my feed. Most of my friends, though, are people I don’t know, who’d happily friended me upon request.”

name

1. A surname transferred from the common noun.
2. A place in the United States:
3. A place in the United States:
4. A place in the United States: