Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use befriend in a sentence

24 example sentences · verb

Befriend means to become a friend of (someone), to make friends with (someone). Example: “The pooka had befriended the kindly old man.”

Examples of befriend by meaning

verbTo become a friend of (someone), to make friends with (someone).

  • Befriending one of the 112 managing directors was not enough; you had to befriend a managing director with clout.1989, Michael Lewis, “Learning to Love Your Corporate Culture”, in Liar’s Poker: Rising through the Wreckage on Wall Street, New York...
  • You said it in a passive voice, as though others befriended you.1999, Jonathan Cole, “The Spectator”, in About Face (A Bradford Book), Cambridge, Mass.; London: The MIT Press, →ISBN, page 121
  • Child sexual abusers are highly manipulative in their befriending of parents and children and are able to deceive all types of family.2006, Christiane Sanderson, “Understanding Child Sexual Abuse”, in Counselling Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, 3rd edition, London...

verbTo act as a friend to (someone, especially a client) by providing companionship and support; to assist, to help.

  • He fled to Switzerland to escape military service, and there was befriended by the revolutionary, Angelica Balabanoff, who, pitying him in his misery and loneliness, befriended him, helping him translate a German pamphlet because he did not know the language.1939, Philip Lindsay, “Ruffians’ Hall Stands Open”, in A Mirror for Ruffians (Essay Index Reprint Series), Freeport, N.Y.: Books for...
  • The social worker very clearly befriends the families with whom she works, and the GP becomes a friend to many of his patients.1989, Philip Burnard, “What is Counselling?”, in Counselling Skills for Health Professionals, London: Chapman and Hall, →ISBN, page 2

More sentences with befriend

  • The pooka had befriended the kindly old man.From the entry pooka
  • Take it from me; it is helpful to remain buoyant when identifying fish to befriend or "befoe."2008, John Tarolli, Road Warriors. From the entry befoe
  • The only protection against it is another mara who befriends a person or a group.2002, Sarvananda Bluestone, The World Dream Book, page 73. From the entry mara
  • Along the way, Japanese put machines on a pedestal, cherished and befriended them.2000 May 1, Tim Larimer, “Rage for the Machine”, in Time. From the entry put on a pedestal
  • Well, I've found it useful to befriend other preds, rather than rebel against them.1999, Kevin Alexander Cosmic, “Vikki and the Rat”, in alt.fan.vore (Usenet). From the entry pred
  • The book's owner, Maurice Conchis (Anthony Quinn) befriends Urfe and brings him into his vortical universe.1968 December 20, “Orpheus Now”, in Time. From the entry vortical
  • Mercedes Armitage befriended me when I was younger and hotter-headed than I am now.1905, Henry M. Ross, “A Curious Situation”, in “That Man’s Daughter”, New York, N.Y.; Cincinnati, Oh.; Chicago, Ill.: Benziger Brothers…. From the entry hot-headed
  • It befriended a blind priest, and for a time was happy, until it accidentally poisoned him with its weird, venomous footspur.2012, John Hodgman, More Information Than You Require. From the entry footspur
  • The only way to handle habitual overfeeders is to identify them, befriend them and urge them to stop.2007 November 25, Andrew D. Blechman, “Pigeon Paranoia”, in New York Times. From the entry overfeeder
  • During a visit to an orphanage at Liukuei in Kaohsiung, President Chiang Ching-kuo befriended a little girl born without arms.1978 June 4, “President Chiang warns interests of ROC and U.S. inseparable”, in 自由中國週報 [Free China Weekly], volume XIX, number 22, Taipei…. From the entry Liukuei
  • For a child from a good family could have gotten into trouble for befriending a cook's son who was a ganev besides.2019, Sholom Aleichem, From the Fair. From the entry ganev
  • They’d befriended him because he fed them the tastiest morsels, Alce, the gilded griffin, preferred Marvel while Keythong, the agate stone one, craved DC Comics.2010, Shirin Dubbin, Dreams’ Dark Kiss, Carina Press, Harlequin Enterprises, →ISBN. From the entry alce
  • Two eighth-graders (Emma Roberts and JoJo) befriend a mermaid (Sara Paxton) who has three days to prove to her merfather that love exists.2006 March 3, Roger Ebert, “'Aquamarine'”, in Orange County Register. From the entry merfather
  • He lost his homophobia when he was befriended and looked after by his gay neighbors, a doctor and a nurse, in Little Rock.2005, Bill Clinton, My Life, volume II, New York: Vintage Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, pages 45–46. From the entry racism
  • He was befriended by a local druggist, Jay Miller, who worked at the apothecary at the corner of Sixth and Harrison Street.1998, Karen Holliday Tanner, Doc Holliday: A Family Portrait, University of Oklahoma Press, published 2001, →ISBN, pages 205–206. From the entry apothecary
  • Peter will befriend me then, Because my name is Peter too; I know him for the best of men That ever wallopped barley brew.1910, Hilaire Belloc, On Something - Volume 10, page 69. From the entry wallop
  • Nowhere in the letter do the writers express a desire to know what is going on with the recipient; they do not wish to listen, learn, or truly befriend.2020 July 10, Jana Riess, “If you want to win Latter-Day Saints back to the church, shame and fear are not how to do it”, in The Salt Lake…. From the entry Coronatide
  • Beyond this circle of outdoorsy ruckusy kids I somehow befriended the decidedly different Thomas, who lived a few doors down in a house surrounded by flowers.1997, Stewart Henderson, In Elizabeth. From the entry ruckusy
  • "A person who does things for me and befriended me and helped me out when I needed help, I'm certainly not going to throw them under the bus," she said.1993 January 27, Steven Cronin, “Sitter: Girl ‘Asked For It,’ Woman Told Her”, in Press of Atlantic City. From the entry throw under the bus

Meaning of befriend

  1. verb To become a friend of (someone), to make friends with (someone).
  2. verb To act as a friend to (someone, especially a client) by providing companionship and support; to assist, to help.
  3. verb To benefit or favour (someone or something); also, to advocate or promote (someone or something).

Full definition of befriend

Questions about befriend in a sentence

How do you use befriend in a sentence?
Befriend is used as a verb. For example: “The pooka had befriended the kindly old man.”
What is a short sentence with befriend?
“The pooka had befriended the kindly old man.”
What does befriend mean?
Befriend means to become a friend of (someone), to make friends with (someone).

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: befriend (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use befriend in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/befriend. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.