"backfriend" meaning in All languages combined

See backfriend on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

IPA: /ˈbækˌfɹɛnd/ [General-American, Received-Pronunciation] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-backfriend.wav Forms: backfriends [plural]
Etymology: From back (adverb or noun) + friend. Sense 3 (“person who pretends to be someone’s friend”) may allude to a person who stays back instead of coming forward to help, and so is not a true friend. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|back|friend|notext=1|pos1=adverb or noun|type=endocentric}} back (adverb or noun) + friend, {{langname|en}} English, {{senseno|en|false friend|uc=1}} Sense 3 Head templates: {{en-noun}} backfriend (plural backfriends), {{term-label|en|Britain|dialectal}} (British, dialectal)
  1. (archaic) A friend who supports someone; a person who has someone's back; a backer, a supporter. Tags: British, archaic, dialectal Categories (topical): People
    Sense id: en-backfriend-en-noun-C3-n5E0T Disambiguation of People: 51 7 42 Categories (other): Pages linking to anchors not found in Appendix:Glossary, British English, English endocentric compounds, English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Finnish translations Disambiguation of British English: 37 41 21 Disambiguation of English endocentric compounds: 35 25 40 Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 54 19 27 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 60 15 25 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 62 16 22 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 66 15 20 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 52 16 32
  2. Synonym of hangnail (“a loose, narrow strip of nail tissue protruding from the side edge and anchored near the base of a fingernail or toenail”) Tags: British, dialectal Synonyms: hangnail [synonym, synonym-of]
    Sense id: en-backfriend-en-noun-8uSiq7yo Categories (other): British English, English endocentric compounds Disambiguation of British English: 37 41 21 Disambiguation of English endocentric compounds: 35 25 40
  3. (obsolete) A person who pretends to be someone's friend; a false friend, a secret enemy. Tags: British, dialectal, obsolete Categories (topical): People Translations (person who pretends to be someone’s friend): petollinen ystävä (Finnish)
    Sense id: en-backfriend-en-noun-en:false_friend Disambiguation of People: 51 7 42 Categories (other): British English, English endocentric compounds Disambiguation of British English: 37 41 21 Disambiguation of English endocentric compounds: 35 25 40 Disambiguation of 'person who pretends to be someone’s friend': 27 1 71
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: back-friend Related terms: a friend in need is a friend indeed, all-weather friend, fair-weather friend, frenemy

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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  "etymology_text": "From back (adverb or noun) + friend. Sense 3 (“person who pretends to be someone’s friend”) may allude to a person who stays back instead of coming forward to help, and so is not a true friend.",
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      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "a friend in need is a friend indeed"
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          "ref": "1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, page 49:",
          "text": "They had vvings of goodvvill to fly vvith, but no vvebbes on their feete to ſvvimme vvith, for except the vvaterfoules had mercie vpon them, and ſtood their faithfull confederates and backe-friends, on their backes to tranſport them, they might returne home like good fooles, and gather ſtravves to build their neſts, or fal to theyr old trade of picking vvormes.",
          "type": "quote"
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          "ref": "1707, Michael Bruce, “Sermon II. On Psalm 140. Verses 12, 13.”, in Good News in Evil Times for Fainting Believers, or The Summ of a Lecture upon Jeremiah 45 Chapter; […], [S.l]: [s.n.], published 1708, →OCLC, pages 63–64:",
          "text": "Tho they give us neither VVine nor Ale; yet if they give us a Cup of cold VVater in the time of need, in the name of Diſciple, in the name of Miniſters, they ſhall not loſe their Revvard. Novv, vvell's us for our Back-friend, he vvill ay maintain our Cauſe; […]",
          "type": "quote"
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          "ref": "1823, [Walter Scott], “The Bohemians”, in Quentin Durward. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 123:",
          "text": "I would always have been able to keep up my spirits with the reflection, that I had, in case of the worst, a stout back-friend in this uncle of mine. But now I have seen him, and, woe worth him, there has been more help in a mere mechanical stranger than I have found in my own mother's brother, my countryman and a cavalier.",
          "type": "quote"
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          "ref": "1980, David Carkeet, chapter 4, in Double Negative […], New York, N.Y.: Dial Press, →ISBN, page 65:",
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        "(archaic) A friend who supports someone; a person who has someone's back; a backer, a supporter."
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          "type": "quote"
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        [
          "protruding",
          "protrude"
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        ],
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          "edge",
          "edge#Noun"
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          "anchor#Verb"
        ],
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          "base",
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          "tags": [
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          "ref": "c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 94, column 1:",
          "text": "A Feind, a Fairie, pittileſſe and ruffe: / A VVolfe, nay vvorſe, a fellovv all in buffe: / A back friend, a ſhoulder-clapper, one that countermãds / The paſſages of allies, creekes, and narrovv lands: […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1611, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of yͤ Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. […], London: […] William Hall and John Beale, for John Sudbury and George Humble, […], →OCLC, book IX ([Englands Monarchs] […]), paragraph 26, page 628, column 1:",
          "text": "[…] VVeſtmorland thought it ſafeſt to checke the Scots, as the neerer and continuall backe-friends.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1666 December 5 (Gregorian calendar); first published 1692, Robert South, “A Sermon Preach’d at Lambeth-Chapel on the 25th of November, 1666. [Julian calendar] upon the Consecration of the Right Reverend Father in God Dr. John Dolben, Lord Bishop of Rochester”, in Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions. […], volume I, London: […] J[ohn] H[eptinstall] for Thomas Bennet, […], →OCLC, page 206:",
          "text": "And ſo far is our Church from encroaching upon the Civil Povver, as ſome, vvho are Back-Friends to both, vvould maliciouſly inſinuate; that vvere it ſtripped of the very Remainder of its Privileges, and made as like the Primitive Church for its Bareneſs, as it is already for its Purity, it could chearfully, and vvhat is more, loyally, vvant all ſuch Privileges; […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Æsop, &c.] Fab[le] XI. A City Mouse and a Country Mouse [Reflexion].”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC, pages 11–12:",
          "text": "Let a man but ſet […] The Reſtleſs Importunities of Tale-bearers and Back Friends, againſt Fair VVords and Profeſſions only from the Teeth outvvard: Let him, I ſay, but ſet the One in Ballance againſt the Other, and he ſhall find himſelf Miſerable, even in the very Glutt of his Delights.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1822 May 29, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in The Fortunes of Nigel. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, pages 88–89:",
          "text": "It is even as I suspected, my lord, […] Ye have back-friends, my lord, that is, unfriends—or, to be plain, enemies—about the person of the Prince.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1827 November 22, Robert Southey, “Chapter XXXI. [Letter to Henry Taylor, Esq.]”, in Charles Cuthbert Southey, editor, The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey. […], volume V, London: […] [Spottiswoodes and Shaw] for Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 321:",
          "text": "It would have been well for me, if I had always had friends as able and as willing to stand forward in my defence as you are. But I have had back[-]friends instead, as well as enemies.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
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        "A person who pretends to be someone's friend; a false friend, a secret enemy."
      ],
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        ],
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          "enemy",
          "enemy#Noun"
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        "(obsolete) A person who pretends to be someone's friend; a false friend, a secret enemy."
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:false friend"
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        {
          "_dis1": "27 1 71",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "person who pretends to be someone’s friend",
          "word": "petollinen ystävä"
        }
      ]
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  ],
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      "ipa": "/ˈbækˌfɹɛnd/",
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        "General-American",
        "Received-Pronunciation"
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      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "back-friend"
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      "word": "a friend in need is a friend indeed"
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      "word": "all-weather friend"
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      "word": "fair-weather friend"
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        {
          "ref": "1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, page 49:",
          "text": "They had vvings of goodvvill to fly vvith, but no vvebbes on their feete to ſvvimme vvith, for except the vvaterfoules had mercie vpon them, and ſtood their faithfull confederates and backe-friends, on their backes to tranſport them, they might returne home like good fooles, and gather ſtravves to build their neſts, or fal to theyr old trade of picking vvormes.",
          "type": "quote"
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          "ref": "1707, Michael Bruce, “Sermon II. On Psalm 140. Verses 12, 13.”, in Good News in Evil Times for Fainting Believers, or The Summ of a Lecture upon Jeremiah 45 Chapter; […], [S.l]: [s.n.], published 1708, →OCLC, pages 63–64:",
          "text": "Tho they give us neither VVine nor Ale; yet if they give us a Cup of cold VVater in the time of need, in the name of Diſciple, in the name of Miniſters, they ſhall not loſe their Revvard. Novv, vvell's us for our Back-friend, he vvill ay maintain our Cauſe; […]",
          "type": "quote"
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          "ref": "1823, [Walter Scott], “The Bohemians”, in Quentin Durward. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 123:",
          "text": "I would always have been able to keep up my spirits with the reflection, that I had, in case of the worst, a stout back-friend in this uncle of mine. But now I have seen him, and, woe worth him, there has been more help in a mere mechanical stranger than I have found in my own mother's brother, my countryman and a cavalier.",
          "type": "quote"
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        {
          "ref": "1980, David Carkeet, chapter 4, in Double Negative […], New York, N.Y.: Dial Press, →ISBN, page 65:",
          "text": "[“H]e said to me, ‘Adelle, I’m going out. I’ve got a backfriend to meet.’” / “A ‘backfriend’?” / “Yes. Evidently he had a late-night appointment with someone at Wabash. That was the way he liked to do it.”",
          "type": "quote"
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      ],
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        "A friend who supports someone; a person who has someone's back; a backer, a supporter."
      ],
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          "has someone's back"
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          "backer",
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          "supporter"
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        "(archaic) A friend who supports someone; a person who has someone's back; a backer, a supporter."
      ],
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        "archaic",
        "dialectal"
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        {
          "ref": "1866, E[liza] Lynn Linton, “Margaret and Ainslie”, in Lizzie Lorton of Greyrigg. […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 121, column 2:",
          "text": "[…] Corrie bit another atom from off the corner of his nail. He had a troublesome \"back-friend\" or \"agnail,\" at which he often bit.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Synonym of hangnail (“a loose, narrow strip of nail tissue protruding from the side edge and anchored near the base of a fingernail or toenail”)"
      ],
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          "hangnail",
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          "loose",
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        [
          "strip",
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          "nail",
          "nail#Noun"
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          "tissue",
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        ],
        [
          "protruding",
          "protrude"
        ],
        [
          "side",
          "side#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "edge",
          "edge#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "anchored",
          "anchor#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "base",
          "base#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "fingernail",
          "fingernail"
        ],
        [
          "toenail",
          "toenail"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "extra": "a loose, narrow strip of nail tissue protruding from the side edge and anchored near the base of a fingernail or toenail",
          "tags": [
            "synonym",
            "synonym-of"
          ],
          "word": "hangnail"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "British",
        "dialectal"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with obsolete senses",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 94, column 1:",
          "text": "A Feind, a Fairie, pittileſſe and ruffe: / A VVolfe, nay vvorſe, a fellovv all in buffe: / A back friend, a ſhoulder-clapper, one that countermãds / The paſſages of allies, creekes, and narrovv lands: […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1611, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of yͤ Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. […], London: […] William Hall and John Beale, for John Sudbury and George Humble, […], →OCLC, book IX ([Englands Monarchs] […]), paragraph 26, page 628, column 1:",
          "text": "[…] VVeſtmorland thought it ſafeſt to checke the Scots, as the neerer and continuall backe-friends.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1666 December 5 (Gregorian calendar); first published 1692, Robert South, “A Sermon Preach’d at Lambeth-Chapel on the 25th of November, 1666. [Julian calendar] upon the Consecration of the Right Reverend Father in God Dr. John Dolben, Lord Bishop of Rochester”, in Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions. […], volume I, London: […] J[ohn] H[eptinstall] for Thomas Bennet, […], →OCLC, page 206:",
          "text": "And ſo far is our Church from encroaching upon the Civil Povver, as ſome, vvho are Back-Friends to both, vvould maliciouſly inſinuate; that vvere it ſtripped of the very Remainder of its Privileges, and made as like the Primitive Church for its Bareneſs, as it is already for its Purity, it could chearfully, and vvhat is more, loyally, vvant all ſuch Privileges; […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Æsop, &c.] Fab[le] XI. A City Mouse and a Country Mouse [Reflexion].”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC, pages 11–12:",
          "text": "Let a man but ſet […] The Reſtleſs Importunities of Tale-bearers and Back Friends, againſt Fair VVords and Profeſſions only from the Teeth outvvard: Let him, I ſay, but ſet the One in Ballance againſt the Other, and he ſhall find himſelf Miſerable, even in the very Glutt of his Delights.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1822 May 29, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in The Fortunes of Nigel. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, pages 88–89:",
          "text": "It is even as I suspected, my lord, […] Ye have back-friends, my lord, that is, unfriends—or, to be plain, enemies—about the person of the Prince.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1827 November 22, Robert Southey, “Chapter XXXI. [Letter to Henry Taylor, Esq.]”, in Charles Cuthbert Southey, editor, The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey. […], volume V, London: […] [Spottiswoodes and Shaw] for Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 321:",
          "text": "It would have been well for me, if I had always had friends as able and as willing to stand forward in my defence as you are. But I have had back[-]friends instead, as well as enemies.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person who pretends to be someone's friend; a false friend, a secret enemy."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "pretends",
          "pretend#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "false",
          "false#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "secret",
          "secret#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "enemy",
          "enemy#Noun"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(obsolete) A person who pretends to be someone's friend; a false friend, a secret enemy."
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:false friend"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "British",
        "dialectal",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbækˌfɹɛnd/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American",
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-backfriend.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a4/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-backfriend.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-backfriend.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a4/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-backfriend.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-backfriend.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "back-friend"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "person who pretends to be someone’s friend",
      "word": "petollinen ystävä"
    }
  ],
  "word": "backfriend"
}

Download raw JSONL data for backfriend meaning in All languages combined (9.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.