different between unfriend vs befriend

English

Alternative forms

• un-friend

Etymology 1

From Middle English unfreend, onfrend, equivalent to un- (noun/adjective prefix) +? friend. Cognate with Scots unfrend (“unfriend”). Compare Old English unfriþmann, unwine.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?nd
• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /??nf??nd/

Noun

unfriend (plural unfriends)

1. One who is not a friend; an enemy.
   • 1822, Scott, Nigel:

     Ye have back-friends, my lord, that is, un-friends, or to be plain, enemies.

   • 1916, William Edwin Chilton, John Downey Works, Fiscal relation between the United States and the District of Columbia

     Thus many unfriends and some friends of the Capital agree upon the same policy with diverse and contradictory motives […]

   • 1999, Kees Waaijman, John Vriend, The mystical space of Carmel:

     The unfriend betrays me, ignores me, denies me, breaks me down; the unfriend is against and tries to devour my personhood.

Synonyms

• backfriend

Related terms

• unfriendly

Etymology 2

un- (verb prefix) +? friend

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?nd
• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /?n?f??nd/

Verb

unfriend (third-person singular simple present unfriends, present participle unfriending, simple past and past participle unfriended)

1. (rare) To sever as friends.
2. (Internet) To defriend; to remove from one's friends list (e.g. on a social networking website).
   • 2007, Mia Consalvo, Caroline Haythornthwaite, Internet Research Annual: Volume 4

     "I asked her why, she said it was because I didn't comment, and I shrugged and said whatever. I didn't unfriend her."

Synonyms

• defriend

Antonyms

• friend
• befriend

Translations

Anagrams

• reinfund

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