Definition of "befriend"

Every little pine needle expanded and swelled with sympathy and befriended me.

1854, Henry David Thoreau, Walden, p. 143.

Befriending one of the 112 managing directors was not enough; you had to befriend a managing director with clout. There was one small problem, of course. Bosses were not always eager to befriend trainees.

1989, Michael Lewis, Liar's Poker, page 52

"We had a professional relationship, whereas the previous vicar was a friend and had befriended me." "Were you available to befriend people? You said it in a passive voice, as though others befriended you.

1999, Jonathan Cole, About Face, page 121

If you want to befriend the Loner, you have to be willing to show patience as he becomes more comfortable with you and what friendship entails.

2002, Jan Yager, When Friendship Hurts, page 47

The social worker very clearly befriends the families with whom she works, and the GP becomes a friend to many of his patients.

2005, Philip Burnard, Counselling Skills for Health Professionals, page 2

Child sexual abusers are highly manipulative in their befriending of parents and children and are able to deceive all types of family.

2006, Christiane Sanderson, Counselling Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, page 17

Brother servants must always befriend one another.

1731 (date written, published 1745), Jonathan Swift, “Directions to Servants”, in Thomas Sheridan and John Nichols, editors, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, […], new edition, volume XVI, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1801

an Irish section boss, whose wife (my mother having befriended her years before when first she and her husband came to Sullivan) had now, at the time my mother was compelled to make this return pilgrimage, befriended us by letting us stay - mother and us three youngsters - until she could find a house.

1916, Theodore Dreiser, Franklin Booth, A Hoosier Holiday, page 417

This particular trainer who had repeatedly befriended "Willie" in many other ways, left the circus for a short time and upon returning to the lot approached him, thinking "Willie" would remember him

1937 May, Popular Mechanics, volume 67, number 5, page 676

He fled to Switzerland to escape military service, and there was befriended by the revolutionary, Angelica Balabanoff, who, pitying him in his misery and loneliness, befriended him, helping him translate a German pamphlet because he did not know the language.

1939, Philip Lindsay, A Mirror for Ruffians, page 353

If it will please Caesar / To be so good to Caesar, as to hear me, / I shall beseech him to befriend himself.

1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

Now if your plots be ripe, you are befriended / With opportunity.

1641 (first performance), [John Denham], The Sophy. […], 2nd edition, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for H[enry] Herringman, […], published 1667, (please specify the page)

Be thou the first true merit to befriend; / His praise is lost, who stays till all commend.

1709, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W. Lewis […], published 1711

See them embarked, And tell me if the winds and seas befriend them.

1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, (please specify the page)

This Universe has its Laws. If we walk according to the Law, the Law-Maker will befriend us; if not, not.

1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. 4, Morrison’s Pill”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, (please specify |book=I or IV, or the page)