friend – English noun declension

English noun forms of friend

Noun: friend
Singularfriend
Pluralfriends

Sample Sentences

  • "[…]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—[…]” [1816, Jane Austen, Emma:]
  • 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]
  • John and I have been friends ever since we were roommates at college.
  • Trust is important between friends.
  • I used to find it hard to make friends when I was shy.
  • We became friends in the war and remain friends to this day.
  • We were friends with some girls from the other school and stayed friends with them.
  • When I was a child of seven years old, my friends, on a holiday, filled my little pocket with halfpence. [1779, Benjamin Franklin, The Whistle (letter):]
  • 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. [1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice:]
  • 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— [1907, Hilaire Belloc, Jim (poem):]
  • The Automobile Association is every motorist's friend. The police is every law-abiding citizen's friend.
  • 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:]
  • a friend of a friend
  • I added him as a friend on Facebook, but I hardly know him.
  • I’m not a friend of cheap wine.
  • Fruit is your friend.
  • You’d better watch it, friend.
  • 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:]
  • Since they were introduced in the 1970s, friends have revolutionized climbing, making protection possible in previously impossible places […] [1995, Rock Climbing Basics:]
  • 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, →OCLC, [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:]
  • 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. [1895, Crockett, Bog-Myrtle, 232]
  • 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[…] [2020, Beth Van Schaack, Imagining Justice for Syria, →ISBN, page 98:]

Etymology

1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Indo-European *preyH-
3. Proto-Indo-European *-ós
4. Proto-Indo-European *priHós
5. Proto-Germanic *frijōną
6. Proto-Germanic *frijōndz
7. Proto-West Germanic *friund
8. Old English frēond
9. Middle English frend
10. English friend
11. From Middle English freend, frend, frende, freynde, friend, frind, frond, frund, vrend, vryend, from Old English frēond, frīond (“friend”, literally “loving [one], lover”), from Proto-West Germanic *friund, from Proto-Germanic *frijōndz (“friend, loved one”), from Proto-Indo-European *preyH- (“to please; to love”), roughly equivalent to free + -nd. See also Friday.
12. Cognates
13. Cognate with Scots freend (“friend”), Yola friend, vriene (“friend”), North Frisian frinj, frün (“friend”), Saterland Frisian Fjund, Früünd (“friend”), West Frisian freon, freondinne (“friend”), Cimbrian bròint, vròint (“friend”), Dutch vriend (“friend”), German Freund (“friend”), German Low German Fründ (“friend, relative”), Limburgish vröndj (“friend”), Luxembourgish Frënd (“friend”), Vilamovian fraeind, frajnd (“friend”), Yiddish פֿרײַנד (fraynd, “friend”), Danish frænde (“kinsman”), Faroese and Icelandic frændi (“kinsman”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk frende (“relative”), Swedish frände (“kinsman, relative”), Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌹𐌾𐍉𐌽𐌳𐍃 (frijōnds, “friend”); also Welsh rhydd (“free”), Latin proprius (“own, proper”), Belarusian пры́яцель (prýjacjelʹ, “friend”), Bulgarian прия́тел (prijátel, “male friend”), Czech přítel (“friend; supporter; lover”), Macedonian при́јател (príjatel, “friend, mate, pal”), Polish przyjaciel, przyjáciel (“friend; lover”), Russian прия́тель (prijátelʹ, “friend; buddy, mate, pal”), Serbo-Croatian при̏јатељ, prȉjatelj (“friend”), Slovak priateľ (“friend; supporter”), Slovene prijatelj (“friend; companion; chum”), Ukrainian при́ятель (prýjatelʹ, “friend; buddy, pal”), Avestan 𐬟𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀 (friia, “good, pleasant”), Persian فری (fari, “beloved, dear; pleasing”), Sanskrit प्रिय (priya, “beloved; own, wonted”). More at free. See: Dutch Nouns 'vriend', German Nouns 'Freund', Danish Nouns 'frænde', Swedish Nouns 'frände', Gothic Nouns '𐍆𐍂𐌹𐌾𐍉𐌽𐌳𐍃', Latin Nouns 'proprius', Bulgarian Nouns 'прия́тел', Czech Nouns 'přítel', Polish Nouns 'przyjaciel', Slovak Nouns 'priateľ'.

Verbs referencing "friend"

German Nouns Freund, Old Norse Nouns frændi, Russian Nouns приятель, Bulgarian Nouns приятел, Finnish Nouns frendi, Latvian Nouns prieks, Danish Nouns frænde, Swedish Nouns frände.