befriend

verb

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-der. Proto-Indo-European *h₁épsder. Proto-Indo-European *h₁epider. Proto-Indo-European *h₁pi Proto-Germanic *bider. Proto-Germanic *bi- Proto-West Germanic *bi- Old English be- Middle English bi- English be- Proto-Indo-European *preyH- Proto-Indo-European *-ós Proto-Indo-European *priHós Proto-Germanic *frijōną Proto-Germanic *frijōndz Proto-West Germanic *friund Old English frēond Middle English frend English friend English befriend From be- (intensifying prefix) + friend (verb). cognates * Dutch bevrienden (“to befriend”) * German befreunden (“to befriend”) * German Low German befründen (“to befriend”) * Saterland Frisian befrüündje (“to befriend”) * West Frisian befreone (“befriended”)

1. To become a friend of (someone), to make friends with (someone).

   “Good Seruilius, vvill you befriend mee ſo farre, as to vſe mine ovvne vvords to him?”

   “[…] I was suddenly sensible of such sweet and beneficent society in Nature, […] Every little pine needle expanded and swelled with sympathy and befriended me.”

2. To act as a friend to (someone, especially a client) by providing companionship and support; to assist, to help.

   “[B]e ſure employ ſome of the Servants to hold the Horſe vvhen your Maſter mounts. This I vvould have you do, vvhen your Maſter only alights, to call in for a fevv Minutes: For Brother-ſervants muſt alvvays befriend one another, and that alſo concerns your Maſter's Honour; becauſe he cannot do leſs than give a Piece of Money to him vvho holds his Horſe.”

   “[O]ne house, a red one, occupied by an Irish section boss, whose wife (my mother having befriended her years before when first she and her husband came to Sullivan) had now, at the time my mother was compelled to make this return pilgrimage, befriended us by letting us stay—mother and us three youngsters—until she could find a house.”

3. To benefit or favour (someone or something); also, to advocate or promote (someone or something).

   “Hence therefore, euery leader to his charge, / For on their anſvvere vvill vve ſet on them, / And God befriend vs as our cauſe is juſt.”

   “Sooth[sayer]. […] [I]f it vvill pleaſe Cæſar / To be ſo good to Cæſar, as to heare me: / I ſhall beſeech him to befriend himſelfe. / Por[tia]. VVhy knovv'ſt thou any harme's intended tovvards him?”