Forms: 3 vreonden, 4–6 fre(e)nde, 9 Sc. freend, 6– friend. [f. FRIEND sb.]
† 1. trans. To gain friends for. Obs. rare–1.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 420. Ne makie none purses, uorte ureonden ou mide.
† 2. To make (persons) friends or friendly; to join in friendship; to join (a person) to or with another in friendship. Chiefly in pass. to be friended. Obs.
1387–8. T. Usk, Test. Love, III. ix. 109. Charitie is love, and love is charity.
| God graunt us al[le] therin to be frended! | |
| And thus The Testament of Love is ended. |
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VII. vi. 196.
| And eftyr swne frendyt were | |
| The kyng Dawy of Scotland | |
| And Stewyn kyng þan of Ingland. |
1585. Earl Leycester, in Corr. Dudley (1844), 33. Yf the man be as he now semeth, hit were petty to loose him, for he is in dede mervelously frended.
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1346/2. What freendship he had shewed … both by his owne purse, as also by freending them to some of the popes chamber.
a. 1598. Rollock, Serm., Wks. 1849, I. 363. Thou sall never get regeneratioun befoir God be friended with thee: thou is his enemie, thou mon be friended with him, or ever thou be renewed.
1604. T. Wright, Passions, I. x. 37. Others you have, soone angrie, soone friended.
3. To act as a friend to, befriend (a person, cause, etc.); to assist, help. arch. or poet.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 89.
| Freende they any, | |
| That flatter many? |
1581. Savile, Tacitus’ Hist., IV. xxxix. (1591) 198. Solemne thankes with praise concluded vpon to the Lieutenants and armies, and kings which frended the cause.
1600. Holland, Livy, XXXI. xi. 779. They had undertaken the warre upon king Philip, because he had friended and aided [auxiliis juvisset] the Carthaginians.
a. 1618. Sylvester, Maiden’s Blush, 966.
| Shee all the gods requires, | |
| To friend her love, and further her desires. |
1676. W. Row, Contn. Blair’s Autobiog., xii. (1848), 434. Reports came that the King would friend Lauderdale and the Commissioner.
1855. Singleton, Virgil, I. 26–7.
| Do thou but at his birth the boy,— | |
| ’Neath whom the iron race shall first surcease, | |
| And all throughout the world the golden dawn,— | |
| O chaste Lucina, friend. |
absol. 1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. ii. 84. Well, the Gods are aboue, time must friend or end well Troylus well.
b. fig. of things.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, V. ii. 143. They are very good against foote shot, if they be not friended with hedge, ditch, or some such place of aduantage.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., IV. v. 19.
| Con. Disorder that hath spoyl’d vs, friend vs now, | |
| Let vs on heapes go offer vp our liues. |
1622. Drayton, Poly-olb., xxii. (1748), 343.
| But friended with the Flood, the Barons hold their strength, | |
| Forcing the King by Boats, and pyles of wood at length. |
1721. Southerne, Spartan Dame, I. i.
| Zen. There the Street | |
| Is narrow, and may friend our Purpose well. |
1867. M. Arnold, Poems, St. Brandan, 61.
| That germ of kindness, in the womb | |
| Of mercy caught, did not expire; | |
| Outlives my guilt, outlives my doom, | |
| sAnd friends me in the pit of fire. |
4. To friend it: to act the friend. rare.
1849. Clough, Dipsychus, I. iii.
| Di. To herd with people that one owns no care for; | |
| Friend it with strangers that one sees but once. |
Hence † Friending vbl. sb., friendliness; the action of befriending or favoring one’s friends.
1602. Shaks., Ham., I. v. 184.
| And what so poore a man as Hamlet is, | |
| May doe t’expresse his loue and friending to you, | |
| God willing shall not lacke. |
1643. Compl. Ho. Com., 10. It is too too evident, that there is notable friending there in causes, both at Committees and in the House.
