Definition of "friend"

friend

/fɹɛnd/

noun
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.
  Quotations
  The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.
  1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Friendship”, in Essays, volume I
  ...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.
  1917, Richard M. Gummere translating Seneca as Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, Loeb Classical Library, Vol. I, No. 3
  ...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.
  1923, William Armistead Falconer translating Cicero as De Amicitia, Loeb Classical Library, Vol. XX, p. 34
  ...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.
  1927 Mar. 31, Ernest Hemingway, letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald
  Definition of a friend: One who walks in—when the rest of the world walks out.
  1933 Dec. 12, Walter Winchell, "On Broadway", Scranton Republican, p. 5
2. An associate who provides assistance.
3. A person with whom one is vaguely or indirectly acquainted.
  Quotations
  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.
  2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27
4. A person who backs or supports something.
5. (informal) An object or idea that can be used for good.
6. (colloquial, ironic, used only in the vocative) Used as a form of address when warning someone.
7. (object-oriented programming) A function or class granted special access to the private and protected members of another class.
  Quotations
  But don't take the following sections as an endorsement of friends. Top C++ programmers avoid using friends unless absolutely necessary.
  1991, Tom Swan, Learning C++
  In that case, the function needn't (and shouldn't) be a friend.
  2001, Stephen Prata, C++ primer plus
  To make a function be a friend to a class, the reserved word friend precedes the function prototype […]
  2008, D S Malik, C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design
8. (climbing) A spring-loaded camming device.
  Quotations
  Since they were introduced in the 1970s, friends have revolutionized climbing, making protection possible in previously impossible places […]
  1995, Rock Climbing Basics
9. (euphemistic) A lover; a boyfriend or girlfriend.
  Quotations
  Nor to the motion of a schoolboy's tongue ; Nor never come in visard to my friend
  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, [Act V, scene ii]
  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 […]
  1813, Samuel Foote, The Commissary, Etc., page 17
  I met your friend. She's very nice, what can I say?
  1975, Janis Ian, In the Winter
10. (Scotland, obsolete) A relative, a relation by blood or marriage.
  Quotations
  He was not a drop's blood to me, though him and my wife were far-out friends.
  1895, Crockett, Bog-Myrtle, 232
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
verb
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.
  Quotations
  Lo sluggish Knight the victors happie pray: / So fortune friends the bold [...].
  1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.ii
  ’Tis true, the stuff I bring for saleIs not so brisk a brew as ale:Out of a stem that scored the handI 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 headWhen your soul is in my soul’s stead;And I will friend you, if I may,In the dark and cloudy day.
  1896, Alfred Edward Housman, A Shropshire Lad, section LXII
2. (transitive) To add (a person) to a list of friends on a social networking site; to officially designate (someone) as a friend.
  Quotations
  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, David Fono and Kate Raynes-Goldie, "Hyperfriendship and Beyond: Friends and Social Norms on LiveJournal" (PDF version), Internet Research Annual Volume 4, Peter Lang, page 99
  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.
  2006, Kevin Farnham, Dale G. Farnham, Myspace Safety: 51 Tips for Teens And Parents‎, How-To Primers, page 69

Definition of "friend"

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