Friend, n.
Etymology: [OR. frend, freond, AS. freónd, prop. p. pr. of freón, freógan, to love; akin to D. vriend friend, OS. friund friend, friohan to love, OHG. friunt friend, G. freund, Icel. frændi kinsman, Sw. frände. Goth. frij friend, frij to love. sq. root83. See Free, and cf. Fiend.]
1. One who entertains for another suo Want gives to know the flatterer from the friend. Dryden. A friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Prov. xviii. 24.
2. One not inimical or hostile; one not a foe or enemy; also, one of the same nation, party, kin, etc., whose friendly feelings may be assumed. The word is some times used as a term of friendly address. Friend, how camest thou in hither Matt. xxii. 12.
3. One who looks propitiously on a cause, an institution, a project, and the like; a favorer; a promoter; as, a friend to commerce, to poetry, to an institution.
4. One of a religious sect characterized by disuse of outward rites and an ordained ministry, by simplicity of dress and speech, and esp. by opposition to war and a desire to live at peace with all men. They are popularly called Quakers. America was first visited by Friends in 1656. T. Chase.
1 more senses
5. A paramour of either sex. [Obs.] Shak. A friend at court or in court, one disposed to act as a friend in a place of special opportunity or influence. -- To be friends with, to have friendly relations with. "He's . . . friends with Cæsar." Shak. -- To make friends with, to become reconciled to or on friendly terms with. "Having now made friends with the Athenians." Jowett (Thucyd. ).
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Friend, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Friended; p. pr, & vb. n. Friending.]
To act as the friend of; to favor; to countenance; to befriend. [Obs.] Fortune friends the bold. Spenser.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for friend; he lists it under associate.
Where he writes about it:
Friendship implies some degree of equality, while love does not; we can speak of man's love toward God, not of his friendship for God. (There is more latitude in the use of the concrete noun friend; Abraham was called "the friend of God;" Christ was called "the friend of sinners.") Compare acquaintance; love. — from friendship