friends
plural of “friend” — a person you know well and regard with affection and trust
An inflected form of friend · plural.
How often you will meet it
Rank 335 of 71,295 words measured. It occurs 60,913 times across 175,160 chapters — 0.029% of every word in the library.
It belongs to the first 500 words, the band worth learning before any other.
What it means
noun
- a person you know well and regard with affection and trust he was my best friend at the university
- an associate who provides cooperation or assistance also: ally he's a good ally in fight
- a person with whom you are acquainted also: acquaintance I have trouble remembering the names of all my acquaintanceswe are friends of the family
- a person who backs a politician or a team etc. also: supporter, protagonist, champion, admirer, booster all their supporters came out for the gamethey are friends of the library
- a member of the Religious Society of Friends founded by George Fox (the Friends have never called themselves Quakers) also: Quaker
friends in real books
Each sentence below was written by a published author and is taken from a different book in our library. Open one to read the passage it came from, with narration.
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Be wise; I will make you friends, and you shall go to bed together.
The White Devil · John Webster · Chapter 1
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The Cupps were neither gossiping nor intrusive, and she felt as if they were her friends.
Emily Fox-Seton · Frances Hodgson Burnett · Chapter 1
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You know you ought to do some good; The friends that sent you, think you should.
Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 08, May 21, 1870 · Various · Chapter 1
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However, had not we the seductive program still, with its Paris, its Constantinople, Smyrna, Jerusalem, Jericho, and "our friends the Bermudians?"
The Innocents Abroad — Volume 01 · Mark Twain · Chapter 1
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I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects.
The Picture of Dorian Gray · Oscar Wilde · Chapter 1