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Brother vs Friend - What's the difference?

brother | friend |

As nouns the difference between brother and friend

is that brother is title of respect for an adult male member of a religious or fraternal order while friend is a quaker; a member of the.

As a proper noun friend is

.

brother

English

Alternative forms

* brotha (Jamaican English)

Noun

(en-noun)
  • Son of the same parents as another person.
  • * , chapter=10
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers .}}
  • A male having at least one parent in common with another (see half-brother, stepbrother).
  • A male fellow member of a religious community, church, trades union etc.
  • * The Bible, Deuteronomy 23:19 (NKJV)
  • You shall not charge interest to your brother —interest on money or'' food ''or anything that is lent out at interest.
  • (African American Vernacular English) A black male.
  • * 2013 , Gwyneth Bolton, Ready for Love
  • But damn if they knew when to just leave a brother alone and let him sulk in silence.
  • Someone who is a peer, whether male or female.
  • *
  • And, above all, no animal must ever tyrannise over his own kind. Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers .

    Usage notes

    The plural “brethren” is not used for biological brothers in contemporary English (although it was in older usage). It is, however, still very common when meaning “members of a religious order”. It is also sometimes used in other figurative senses, e.g. “adherents of the same religion”, “countrymen”, and the like.

    Coordinate terms

    * (with regards to gender) sister

    Hypernyms

    * (son of common parents) sibling

    Derived terms

    (Terms derived from the noun "brother") * big brother/Big Brother * blood brother * bro * brother german * brother-in-arms * brother-in-law * Brother Jonathan * brothered * brotherhood * brotherlike * brotherly * bruv * bruvver * Christian Brother * co-brother * cousin brother/cousin-brother * everyone and their brother/everybody and their brother * foster brother/foster-brother * half brother/half-brother * lay brother * little brother * milk brother * soul brother * stepbrother/step-brother * uterine brother * Xaverian Brother

    Descendants

    * Bahamian Creole: (l) * Belize Kriol English: (l) * Bislama: (l) * Cameroon Pidgin: * Gullah: (l) * Islander Creole English: (l) * Krio: (l) * Nicaraguan Creole: (l) * Nigerian Pidgin: (l) * Pichinglis: * Pijin: (l) * Portuguese: * Saramaccan: * Tok Pisin: (l), (l)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To treat as a brother.
  • * 1819 , Walter Scott, Ivanhoe
  • * Seest thou not we are overreached, and that our proposed mode of communicating with our friends without has been disconcerted by this same motley gentleman thou art so fond to brother ?
  • Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • We're being forced to work overtime? Oh, brother !

    friend

    English

    (Friendship)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person other than a family member, spouse or lover whose company one enjoys and towards whom one feels affection.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=However, with the dainty volume my quondam friend sprang into fame. At the same time he cast off the chrysalis of a commonplace existence.}}
  • A boyfriend or girlfriend.
  • An associate who provides assistance.
  • A person with whom one is vaguely or indirectly acquainted
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)
  • , volume=189, issue=2, page=27, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= The tao of tech , passage=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",
  • A person who backs or supports something.
  • (informal) An object or idea that can be used for good.
  • (colloquial, ironic, used only in the vocative) Used as a form of address when warning someone.
  • (computing, programming) In object-oriented programming, a function or class granted special access to the private and protected members of another class.
  • * 1991 , Tom Swan, Learning C++
  • But don't take the following sections as an endorsement of friends'. Top C++ programmers avoid using ' friends unless absolutely necessary.
  • * 2001 , Stephen Prata, C++ primer plus
  • In that case, the function needn't (and shouldn't) be a friend .
  • * 2008 , D S Malik, C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design
  • To make a function be a friend to a class, the reserved word friend precedes the function prototype
  • (obsolete) A paramour of either sex.
  • (Shakespeare)

    Synonyms

    * (person whose company one enjoys) bud (qualifier), buddy (qualifier), chum (British), mate (British), pal, crony, amigo, bro * (boyfriend or girlfriend) boyfriend, girlfriend, lover * (person with whom you are acquainted) acquaintance * (person who provides assistance) ally * (person who backs something) admirer, booster, champion, protagonist, supporter * (form of address used in warning someone) buster, mate (British), pal, buddy * See also

    Antonyms

    * (person whose company one enjoys) enemy, foe, nemesis (nonstandard) * (person who provides assistance) enemy, foe

    Usage notes

    * We usually make a friend'', or ''make friends with someone. See

    Derived terms

    * a friend in need is a friend indeed * best friend * befriend * bosom friend * boy friend * boyfriend * circle of friends * close friend * fair-weather friend * false friend * four-legged friend * * friend of mine * friend of ours * friend with benefits * friendish * friendless * friendly * Friends * friendship * friends list * friendsome * friend zone * girl friend * girlfriend * good friend * identification friend or foe * lady friend * man's best friend * old friend * penfriend, pen friend, pen-friend * schoolfriend

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To act as a friend to, to befriend; to be friendly to, to help.
  • * 1596 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , IV.ii:
  • Lo sluggish Knight the victors happie pray: / So fortune friends the bold [...].
  • To add (a person) to a list of friends on a social networking site; to officially designate (someone) as a friend.
  • * 2006 , David Fono and Kate Raynes-Goldie, " Hyperfriendship and Beyond: Friends and Social Norms on LiveJournal]" ([http://k4t3.org/publications/hyperfriendship.pdf PDF version]), Internet Research Annual Volume 4 , Peter Lang, ISBN 0820478571, page [http://books.google.com/books?q=%22friend+them%22+consalvo&btnG=Search+Books 99,
  • The difference between responses to the statement, "If someone friends' me, I will '''friend''' them," and "If I '''friend''' someone, I expect them to ' friend me back," is telling.
  • * 2006 , Kevin Farnham and Dale G. Farnham, Myspace Safety: 51 Tips for Teens And Parents , How-To Primers, ISBN 0977883353, page 69,
  • One of the most used features of MySpace is the practice that is nicknamed "friending." If you "friend " someone, then that person is added to your MySpace friends list, and you are added to their friends list.

    Synonyms

    * (to act as the friend of) befriend

    Antonyms

    * (social networking) defriend, unfriend

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * (l) * (l) 1000 English basic words ----