Dictionary

befriend

Pronunciation

enPR: bĭfrĕnd, IPA: /bɪˈfɹɛnd/

Verb

befriend (befriends, present participle befriending; past and past participle befriended)

(transitive) To become a friend of, to make friends with.
- 1854, Henry David Thoreau, Walden, p. 143.
  Every little pine needle expanded and swelled with sympathy and befriended me.
(transitive, dated) To act as a friend to, to assist.
- 1731, Jonathan Swift, Directions to Servants
  Brother servants must always befriend one another.
(transitive) To favor.
- 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
  If it will please Caesar / To be so good to Caesar, as to hear me, / I shall beseech him to befriend himself.
- 1709, John Denham "The Sophy", in Poems and translations: with the Sophy, a tragedy, Fifth edition [http://books.google.com/books?id=J_oKSClMF7cC&pg=PA259&lpg=PA259&dq=%22Now+if+your+plots+be+ripe,+you+are+%27%27%27befriended%27%27%27+With+opportunity%22&source=bl&ots=TM1JZjzUhv&sig=YqPk32bF8zeqdypmaXvHUKGZ_pQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ZQ1ZUNmmJsa_0QGBkoGgBw&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22Now%20if%20your%20plots%20be%20ripe%2C%20you%20are%20%27%27%27befriended%27%27%27%20With%20opportunity%22&f=false]
  Now if your plots be ripe, you are befriended / With opportunity.
- 1709, Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism
  Be thou the first true merit to befriend; / His praise is lost, who stays till all commend.
- 1712, Joseph Addison, Cato: A tragedy. As it is acted at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane, by His Majesty's servants, Act II, edited and published by Jacob Tonson (1733)
  See them embarked, And tell me if the winds and seas befriend them.
- 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, ch. 4, "Morrison's Pill"
  This Universe has its Laws. If we walk according to the Law, the Law-Maker will befriend us; if not, not.

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