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Friend vs Friendlier - What's the difference?

friend | friendlier |

As a noun friend

is a person other than a family member, spouse or lover whose company one enjoys and towards whom one feels affection.

As a verb friend

is to act as a friend to, to befriend; to be friendly to, to help.

As a proper noun Friend

is {{surname|from=common nouns}.

As an adjective friendlier is

comparative of friendly.

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 ----

    friendlier

    English

    Adjective

    (head)
  • (friendly)

    • friendly

    English

    Adjective

  • Generally warm, approachable and easy to relate with in character.
    • Your cat seems very friendly .
  • *
    • They stayed together during three dances, went out on to the terrace, explored wherever they were permitted to explore, paid two visits to the buffet, and enjoyed themselves much in the same way as if they had been school-children surreptitiously breaking loose from an assembly of grown-ups. The boy became volubly friendly and bubbling over with unexpected humour and high spirits.
  • Inviting, characteristic of friendliness.
    • He gave a friendly smile.
  • Having an easy relationship with something, as in user-friendly etc.
  • Without any hostility.
    • a friendly competition
    a friendly power or state
  • * (1800-1859)
    • in friendly relations with his moderate opponents
  • Promoting the good of any person; favourable; propitious.
    • a friendly breeze or gale
  • * (Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)
    • On the first friendly bank he throws him down.
  • (military) Of or pertaining to friendlies (friendly noun sense 2, below). Also applied to other bipolar confrontations, such as team sports
    • The soldier was killed by friendly fire.
  • *
  • *
  • (number theory) Being or relating to two or more natural numbers with a common abundancy.
    • friendly''' numbers;  '''friendly''' pairs;  '''friendly n-tuples

    Antonyms

    * unfriendly * hostile

    Derived terms

    * family friendly * friendliness * friendly fire * Friendly Islands * radio-friendly * user-friendly

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • In a friendly manner, like a friend.
  • * 1646 , (Thomas Browne), Pseudodoxia Epidemica :
    • And we cannot doubt, our Brothers in Physick [...] will friendly accept, if not countenance our endeavours.

    Synonyms

    * amicably, friendlily

    Noun

    (friendlies)
  • (sports) A game which is of no consequence in terms of ranking, betting etc.
    • ''Even as friendlies , derbies often arouse strong emotions
  • A person or entity on the same side of a conflict.
  • * 2008 , Dennis Wengert, A Very Healthy Insanity (page 44)
    • You see, the mission of almost every teenage girl on the loose is to first identify the targets, just like a war. These include the primary objective (the boy), the enemy (other girls), the friendlies (sympathetic girl friends and the boy's family), and unfriendlies (other boys).