fair-weather friend

noun

No English definition recorded for this entry.

Pronunciation: /ˈfɛəˌwɛðə ˈfɹɛnd/ / /ˈfɛːˌwɛðə ˈfɹɛnd/ / /ˈfɛɚˌwɛðɚ ˈfɹɛnd/

Etymology: From fair-weather + friend, drawing an analogy between good weather and trouble-free times.

One who is friendly, helpful, or available only when it is advantageous or convenient to be so.
“My Fair-weather Friends of the Summer are going away for London, and I ſhall ſee them and the butterflies together, if I live till next Year; which I would not deſire to do, if it were only for their ſakes.”
“[T]he liberty of the press was not to be looked upon as fit only for seasons of calmness, as a fair-weather friend to be discarded in a storm.”