friendly

Generally warm, approachable and easy to relate with in character.

Adjective

  1. Generally warm, approachable and easy to relate with in character.
    • Your cat seems very friendly.
    • They stayed together during three dances, went out on to the terrace, explored wherever they were permitted to explore, paid two visits to the buffet, and enjoyed themselves much in the same way as if they had been...
    • Our friendliest carmates are a family from Armenia taking a vacation from the Georgian war. - 2007, Eugene Buchanan, Brothers on the Bashkaus: A Siberian Paddling Adventure, page 36:

    Synonyms: chummy

  2. Inviting, characteristic of friendliness.
    • He gave a friendly smile.

    Synonyms: familiar

  3. Having an easy or accepting relationship with something.
    • a user-friendly software program
    • a dog-friendly café
    • the use of environmentally friendly packaging
  4. Compatible with, or not damaging to (the compounded noun).
    • The cobbled streets aren't very bike-friendly.
    • Organic farms only use soil-friendly fertilisers.
    • Our sandwiches are made with dolphin-friendly tuna.
  5. Without any hostility.
    • a friendly competition
    • a friendly power or state
    • in friendly relations with his moderate opponents - 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter II, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London:...
  6. Promoting the good of any person; favourable; propitious.
    • a friendly breeze or gale
    • Coarſe are his Meals, the Fortune of the Chaſe, / Amidſt the running Stream he ſlakes his Thirſt, / Toil's all the Day, and at th' approach of Night / On the firſt friendly Bank he throws him down, / Or reſts his Head...
  7. Of or pertaining to friendlies (friendly noun sense 2, below). Also applied to other bipolar confrontations, such as team sports.
    • The soldier was killed by friendly fire.
    • It is clear that the firing of very heavy guns, or the enemy's fire in return, would very seriously interfere with an abbatis, or anything of that kind, and it will only be something of the lightest character, or...
    • The slaughter of one's own troops by being fired into by their friends in rear. We are very much concerned over the question of avoiding loss from the enemy's bullets while passing through the danger zone, but what have...
  8. Being or relating to two or more natural numbers with a common abundancy.
    • friendly
    • friendly pairs
    • friendly n-tuples

Origin

From Middle English frendly, freendly, frendely, frendlich, from Old English frēondlīċ, from Proto-Germanic *frijōndlīkaz, equivalent to friend + -ly. Cognate with Saterland Frisian früntelk, fjuntelk (“friendly”), West Frisian freonlik (“friendly”), Dutch vriendelijk (“friendly”), German Low German fründelk, frünnelk (“friendly”), German freundlich (“friendly”). Doublet of friendlike.

Forms

friendlier more friendly friendliest most friendly

Synonyms

affectionate amiable bonhomous amicable chummy companionable congenial cordial facile familiar friendly genial hospitable matey personable simpatico welcoming

Antonyms

hostile unfriendly non-friendly nonfriendly brusque standoffish

Hyponyms

dyslexia-friendly eco-friendly environmentally friendly family-friendly finger-friendly printer-friendly print-friendly radio-friendly tool-friendly user-friendly

Related

agreeable friend kindly polite sociable

Derived

biofriendly ecologically friendly envirofriendly enviro-friendly find a friendly bush friendlihead friendlihood friendliness friendly amendment friendly fire friendly fraud friendly giant Friendly Hills friendlyish Friendly Islands friendly lead friendly match friendly name friendly number friendly society friendly suit friendly URL guest-friendly heterofriendly

Adverb

  1. In a friendly manner; like a friend.
    • And looke we friendly on them when they come: But if they offer word or violence, Weele fight fiue hundred men at armes to one, Before we part with our poſſeſſion: […] - c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher...
    • And we cannot doubt, our Brothers in Physick [...] will friendly accept, if not countenance our endeavours. - 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica:

Origin

From Middle English frendly, frendliche, from Old English frēondlīċe (“in a friendly manner”), equivalent to friend + -ly.

Forms

more friendly most friendly

Synonyms

amicably friendlily

Noun

  1. A game which is of no consequence in terms of ranking, betting, etc.
    • This match is merely a friendly, so don't worry too much about it.
    • Brazil provided a different test from Germany and gave England lessons Southgate will store before he gets his squad together again for friendlies against the Netherlands in Amsterdam and at home to Italy in March. -...
  2. A person or entity on the same side as one's own in a conflict.
    • These were speedily routed by the friendlies, who attacked the small force before them in fine style. - 1898, Ernest Bennett, The Downfall of the Dervishes:
    • You see, the mission of almost every teenage girl on the loose is to first identify the targets, just like a war. These include the primary objective (the boy), the enemy (other girls), the friendlies (sympathetic girl...
    • "What's coming?" "Dunno yet. Cindy! Active scanning! Pulse hard, but don't cook any friendlies." - 2017 July 6, Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary, archived from the original on 20 Jan 2024:

Forms

friendlies