Befriend vs Abet - What's the difference?
befriend | abet | Related terms |
To become a friend of, to make friends with.
* 1854 , (Henry David Thoreau), (Walden), p. 143.
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(dated) To act as a friend to, to assist.
* (rfdate) (Jonathan Swift)
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To favor.
* 1599 , (William Shakespeare),
* 1709 , (John Denham) "The Sophy", in Poems and translations: with the Sophy, a tragedy , Fifth edition [http://books.google.com/books?id=J_oKSClMF7cC&pg=PA259&lpg=PA259&dq=%22Now+if+your+plots+be+ripe,+you+are+%27%27%27befriended%27%27%27+With+opportunity%22&source=bl&ots=TM1JZjzUhv&sig=YqPk32bF8zeqdypmaXvHUKGZ_pQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ZQ1ZUNmmJsa_0QGBkoGgBw&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22Now%20if%20your%20plots%20be%20ripe%2C%20you%20are%20%27%27%27befriended%27%27%27%20With%20opportunity%22&f=false]
* 1709 , (Alexander Pope), ''(An Essay on Criticism)
* 1712 , (Joseph Addison), . As it is acted at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane, by His Majesty's servants , Act II, edited and published by Jacob Tonson (1733)
* 1843 , (Thomas Carlyle), , ch. 4, "Morrison's Pill"
(obsolete) To urge on, stimulate (a person to do) something desirable.
To incite; to assist or encourage by aid or countenance in crime.
* 1823 , Ringan Gilhaize, The covenanters, by the author of Annals of the parish :
(archaic) To support, countenance, maintain, uphold, or aid any good cause, opinion, or action; to maintain.
* 1835 , Jeremy Taylor, George Rust, The whole works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor :
(obsolete) To back up one's forecast of a doubtful issue, by staking money, etc., to bet.
(obsolete) Fraud or cunning.
(obsolete) An act of abetting; of helping; of giving aid.
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In transitive terms the difference between befriend and abet
is that befriend is to favor while abet is to incite; to assist or encourage by aid or countenance in crime.As a noun abet is
fraud or cunning.befriend
English
Verb
(en verb)- Every little pine needle expanded and swelled with sympathy and befriended me.
- Brother servants must befriend one another.
- If it will please Caesar / To be so good to Caesar, as to hear me, / I shall beseech him to befriend himself.
- Now if your plots be ripe, you are befriended / With opportunity.
- Be thou the first true merit to befriend ; / His praise is lost, who stays till all commend.
- See them embarked, And tell me if the winds and seas befriend them.
- This Universe has its Laws. If we walk according to the Law, the Law-Maker will befriend us; if not, not.
Antonyms
* * *Derived terms
* * *abet
English
Verb
(abett)- Those who would exalt themselves by abetting the strength of the Godless, and the wrength of the oppressors.
- Our duty is urged, and our confidence abetted .
