befriend
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-der.
Proto-Indo-European *h₁épsder.
Proto-Indo-European *h₁epider.
Proto-Indo-European *h₁pi
Proto-Germanic *bider.
Proto-Germanic *bi-
Proto-West Germanic *bi-
Old English be-
Middle English bi-
English be-
Proto-Indo-European *preyH-
Proto-Indo-European *-ós
Proto-Indo-European *priHós
Proto-Germanic *frijōną
Proto-Germanic *frijōndz
Proto-West Germanic *friund
Old English frēond
Middle English frend
English friend
English befriend
From be- (intensifying prefix) + friend (verb).
cognates
* Dutch bevrienden (“to befriend”)
* German befreunden (“to befriend”)
* German Low German befründen (“to befriend”)
* Saterland Frisian befrüündje (“to befriend”)
* West Frisian befreone (“befriended”)
Base: friend
Affixes: be-
Inflected forms:
form: befriends
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: befriending
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: befriended
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: befriended
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: befriend
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: befriend
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: befriended
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: befriend
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: befriendest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: befriended
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: befriendedst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: befriends
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: befriendeth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: befriended
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: befriend
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: befriended
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: befriend
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: befriended
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: befriend
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: befriending
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: befriended
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
Senses:
gloss: To become a friend of (someone), to make friends with (someone).
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
transitive
examples: Good Seruilius, vvill you befriend mee ſo farre, as to vſe mine ovvne vvords to him?
[…] I was suddenly sensible of such sweet and beneficent society in Nature, […] Every little pine needle expanded and swelled with sympathy and befriended me.
This particular trainer who had repeatedly befriended "Willie" [an elephant] in many other ways, left the circus for a short time and upon returning to the lot approached him, thinking "Willie" would remember him. As he drew near "Willie" knocked him down and wrapped his trunk around his body. Only the intervention of the entire menagerie force saved him.
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.
"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.
Negative sibling relations or harmful friendships during the childhood or teen years could make the adult Loner fearful of friendships. […] 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.
Child sexual abusers are highly manipulative in their befriending of parents and children and are able to deceive all types of family.
gloss: To act as a friend to (someone, especially a client) by providing companionship and support; to assist, to help.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: [B]e ſure employ ſome of the Servants to hold the Horſe vvhen your Maſter mounts. This I vvould have you do, vvhen your Maſter only alights, to call in for a fevv Minutes: For Brother-ſervants muſt alvvays befriend one another, and that alſo concerns your Maſter's Honour; becauſe he cannot do leſs than give a Piece of Money to him vvho holds his Horſe.
[O]ne house, a red one, occupied by 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.
All [Benito] Mussolini's life is contradiction. 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.
The social worker very clearly befriends the families with whom she works, and the GP becomes a friend to many of his patients.
gloss: To benefit or favour (someone or something); also, to advocate or promote (someone or something).
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: Hence therefore, euery leader to his charge, / For on their anſvvere vvill vve ſet on them, / And God befriend vs as our cauſe is juſt.
Sooth[sayer]. […] [I]f it vvill pleaſe Cæſar / To be ſo good to Cæſar, as to heare me: / I ſhall beſeech him to befriend himſelfe. / Por[tia]. VVhy knovv'ſt thou any harme's intended tovvards him?
Thy vſurie, extorting, racking, incloſing, hath vvounded vvhole Villages, and novv thou befriendeſt tvvo or three vvith the plaiſters of thy bountie.
Hovv greatly befriendeth he vs, that keepeth our houſe from falling, that vnderproppeth it vvith great cunning, and vpholdeth it in the aire, being cleft and vvinde-ſhaken from the very foundation: […]
Novv if your plots be ripe, you are befriended / With opportunity; […]
Be thou the firſt true Merit to befriend; / His praiſe is loſt, vvho ſtays till All commend; […]
[S]ee them embarqued; / And tell me if the VVinds and Seas befriend them.
VVait an Occaſion that befriends your VVishes.
How do you agree with God's Universe and the actual Reality of things? This Universe has its Laws. If we walk according to the Law, the Law-Maker will befriend us; if not, not.
Related words: friend
friendly
Derived words: befriendable
befriendee
befriender
befriending
befriendment
unbefriend
unbefriended
unbefriending
Translations: