friend Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a person you know well and regard with affection and trust
    • he was my best friend at the university
  2. noun an associate who provides cooperation or assistance
    ally.
    • he's a good ally in fight
  3. noun a person with whom you are acquainted
    acquaintance.
    • I have trouble remembering the names of all my acquaintances
    • we are friends of the family
  4. noun a person who backs a politician or a team etc.
    champion; protagonist; admirer; supporter; booster.
    • all their supporters came out for the game
    • they are friends of the library
  5. noun a member of the Religious Society of Friends founded by George Fox (the Friends have never called themselves Quakers)
    Quaker.

WordNet

Friend noun
Etymology
OR. frend, freond, AS. freónd, prop. p. pr. of freón, freógan, to love; akin to D. vriend friend, OS. friund friend, friohan to love, OHG. friunt friend, G. freund, Icel. frændi kinsman, Sw. frände. Goth. frijnds friend, frijn to love. See Free, and cf. Fiend.
Definitions
  1. One who entertains for another suo, sentiments of esteem, respect, and affection that he scens the society and welfare; a wellwisher; an intimate associate; sometimes, an attendant.
    Want gives to know the flatterer from the friend. Dryden.
    A friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Prov. xviii. 24.
  2. One not inimical or hostile; one not a foe or enemy; also, one of the same nation, party, kin, etc., whose friendly feelings may be assumed. The word is some times used as a term of friendly address.
    Friend, how camest thou in hither? Matt. xxii. 12.
  3. One who looks propitiously on a cause, an institution, a project, and the like; a favorer; a promoter; as, a friend to commerce, to poetry, to an institution.
  4. One of a religious sect characterized by disuse of outward rites and an ordained ministry, by simplicity of dress and speech, and esp. by opposition to war and a desire to live at peace with all men. They are popularly called Quakers.
    America was first visited by Friends in 1656. T. Chase.
  5. A paramour of either sex. Obs. Shak.
Friend transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Friended; present participle, & verbal noun Friending
Definitions
  1. To act as the friend of; to favor; to countenance; to befriend. Obs.
    Fortune friends the bold. Spenser.

Webster 1913