different between support vs befriend

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /s??p??t/, [s??p???t]
• (General American) IPA^(key): /s??p??t/, [s??p???t], [s??p?o?t]
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /s??po(?)?t/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /s??po?t/
• Rhymes: -??(?)t
• Hyphenation: sup?port

Etymology 1

From Middle English supporten, from Old French supporter, from Latin support?. Displaced Old English underwreþian and Old English fultum.

Verb

support (third-person singular simple present supports, present participle supporting, simple past and past participle supported)

2. (transitive) To keep from falling.

3. (transitive) To answer questions and resolve problems regarding something sold.

5. (transitive) To back a cause, party, etc., mentally or with concrete aid.

6. (transitive) To help, particularly financially.
7. To verify; to make good; to substantiate; to establish; to sustain.
   • 1754, Jonathan Edwards, The Freedom of the Will

     to urge such arguments, as though they were sufficient to support and demonstrate a whole scheme of moral philosophy

8. (transitive) To serve, as in a customer-oriented mindset; to give support to.

9. (transitive) To be designed (said of machinery, electronics, or computers, or their parts, accessories, peripherals, or programming) to function compatibly with or provide the capacity for.

10. (transitive) To be accountable for, or involved with, but not responsible for.

11. (archaic) To endure without being overcome; bear; undergo; to tolerate.

    • This fierce demeanour and his insolence / The patience of a god could not support.

    • 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque:

      For a strong affection such moments are worth supporting, and they will end well; for your advocate is in your lover's heart and speaks her own language […]

12. To assume and carry successfully, as the part of an actor; to represent or act; to sustain.

Synonyms

• (to keep from falling): underprop, uphold, stut

Antonyms

• (to back a cause, party, etc.): oppose

Derived terms

• supportable
• supported
• supportive

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English support, from Anglo-Norman and Middle French support. Displaced Old English underwreþung.

Noun

support (countable and uncountable, plural supports)

1. (sometimes attributive) Something which supports.

2. Financial or other help.
3. Answers to questions and resolution of problems regarding something sold.

4. (mathematics) in relation to a function, the set of points where the function is not zero, or the closure of that set.
5. (fuzzy set theory) A set whose elements are at least partially included in a given fuzzy set (i.e., whose grade of membership in that fuzzy set is strictly greater than zero).

6. Evidence.

7. (computing) Compatibility and functionality for a given product or feature.

8. An actor playing a subordinate part with a star.
9. An accompaniment in music.
10. (gymnastics) Clipping of support position.
11. (structural analysis) Horizontal, vertical or rotational support of structures: movable, hinged, fixed. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Antonyms

• (mathematics): kernel

Hyponyms

• moral support
• (answers to questions and resolution of problems regarding something sold): first-level support, second-level support, third-level support
• (military): combat support

Derived terms

• support act
• support group

Translations

French

Etymology

From the verb supporter.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sy.p??/

Noun

support m (plural supports)

1. support
2. base
3. (heraldry) supporter

Further reading

• “support” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Etymology

From be- +? friend. Compare Saterland Frisian befrüündje (“to befriend”), Dutch bevrienden (“to befriend”), German Low German befründen (“to befriend”),German befreunden (“to befriend”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: b?fr?nd, IPA^(key): /b??f??nd/
• Rhymes: -?nd

Verb

befriend (third-person singular simple present befriends, present participle befriending, simple past and past participle befriended)

1. (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.
2. (transitive, dated) To act as a friend to, to assist.
   • 1731, Jonathan Swift, Directions to Servants

     Brother servants must always befriend one another.
3. (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 [1]

     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.

Antonyms

• befoe
• defriend
• unfriend

Derived terms

• befriender
• befriendment
• unbefriended
• unbefriending

Related terms

• friend
• friendly

Translations