Befriend

//bɪˈfɹɛnd// verb

verb ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To become a friend of, to make friends with. transitive

    "1854, Henry David Thoreau, Walden, p. 143. Every little pine needle expanded and swelled with sympathy and befriended me."

  2. 2
    become friends with wordnet
  3. 3
    To act as a friend to, to assist. dated, transitive

    "Brother servants must always befriend one another."

  4. 4
    To favor. transitive

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

Synonyms

All synonyms
abetaidassistavailbail outbear a hand

Example

More examples

"Iran desires to befriend the world."

Etymology

From be- + friend. Compare Saterland Frisian befrüündje (“to befriend”), Dutch bevrienden (“to befriend”), German Low German befründen (“to befriend”), German befreunden (“to befriend”). Compare also West Frisian befreone (“befriended”).

Related phrases

make friends

More for "befriend"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.