Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Friend \Friend\ (fr[e^]nd), n. [OR. frend, freond, AS.
   fre['o]nd, prop. p. pr. of fre['o]n, fre['o]gan, to love;
   akin to D. vriend friend, OS. friund friend, friohan to love,
   OHG. friunt friend, G. freund, Icel. fr[ae]ndi kinsman, Sw.
   fr["a]nde. Goth. frij[=o]nds friend, frij[=o]n to love.
   [root]83. See {Free}, and cf. {Fiend}.]
   1. One who entertains for another such sentiments of esteem,
      respect, and affection that he seeks his society aud
      welfare; a wellwisher; an intimate associate; sometimes,
      an attendant.

            Want gives to know the flatterer from the friend.
                                                  --Dryden.

            A friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
                                                  --Prov. xviii.
                                                  24.

   2. One not inimical or hostile; one not a foe or enemy; also,
      one of the same nation, party, kin, etc., whose friendly
      feelings may be assumed. The word is some times used as a
      term of friendly address.

            Friend, how camest thou in hither?    --Matt. xxii.
                                                  12.

   3. One who looks propitiously on a cause, an institution, a
      project, and the like; a favorer; a promoter; as, a friend
      to commerce, to poetry, to an institution.

   4. One of a religious sect characterized by disuse of outward
      rites and an ordained ministry, by simplicity of dress and
      speech, and esp. by opposition to war and a desire to live
      at peace with all men. They are popularly called Quakers.

            America was first visited by Friends in 1656. --T.
                                                  Chase.

   5. A paramour of either sex. [Obs.] --Shak.

   {A friend} {at court or in court}, one disposed to act as a
      friend in a place of special opportunity or influence.

   {To be friends with}, to have friendly relations with. ``He's
      . . . friends with C[ae]sar.'' --Shak.

   {To make friends with}, to become reconciled to or on
      friendly terms with. ``Having now made friends with the
      Athenians.'' --Jowett (Thucyd.).