friends

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of friend.

   Several of his closest friends helped him move into the new apartment.

   The two of them have been good friends since elementary school.

   Note

   A regular plural, made by adding -s, and it carries every meaning the singular has: the people whose company you enjoy, the patrons and mentors who help, the loose acquaintances, the backers of a cause. The same spelling serves the verb form, so let position decide. After a word like his or good it is the noun; directly after a singular subject it is the verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of friend.

   My sister friends every author whose book she finishes reading.

   Whenever he meets someone interesting, he friends them before the evening ends.

   Note

   A transitive form that always needs an object: she friends a colleague, he friends them. Its older meaning, to befriend or help someone, is now obsolete. In present-day English the form almost always means adding a person to a list of friends on a social networking site. When it turns up in older writing, the obsolete sense is the one to read.

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