"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 [Southern-England] 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)
  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: 41 13 47 Categories (other): Pages linking to anchors not found in Appendix:Glossary, British English, English endocentric compounds, English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English entries with topic categories using raw markup Disambiguation of British English: 40 36 24 Disambiguation of English endocentric compounds: 35 25 40 Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 53 19 28 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 51 20 29 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 51 21 28
  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 Categories (topical): People Synonyms: hangnail [synonym, synonym-of]
    Sense id: en-backfriend-en-noun-8uSiq7yo Disambiguation of People: 41 13 47 Categories (other): British English, English endocentric compounds Disambiguation of British English: 40 36 24 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: 41 13 47 Categories (other): British English, English endocentric compounds Disambiguation of British English: 40 36 24 Disambiguation of English endocentric compounds: 35 25 40 Disambiguation of 'person who pretends to be someone’s friend': 26 1 73
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

Download JSON data for backfriend meaning in All languages combined (6.9kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "back",
        "3": "friend",
        "notext": "1",
        "pos1": "adverb or noun",
        "type": "endocentric"
      },
      "expansion": "back (adverb or noun) + friend",
      "name": "compound"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en"
      },
      "expansion": "English",
      "name": "langname"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "false friend",
        "uc": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "Sense 3",
      "name": "senseno"
    }
  ],
  "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.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "backfriends",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "backfriend (plural backfriends)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "back‧friend"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "a friend in need is a friend indeed"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "all-weather friend"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "fair-weather friend"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "frenemy"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages linking to anchors not found in Appendix:Glossary",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "40 36 24",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "35 25 40",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English endocentric compounds",
          "parents": [
            "Endocentric compounds",
            "Compound terms",
            "Terms by etymology"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "53 19 28",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "51 20 29",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "51 21 28",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "41 13 47",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "People",
          "orig": "en:People",
          "parents": [
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "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": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1980, David Carkeet, chapter 4, in Double Negative […], New York, N.Y.: Dial Press, 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": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A friend who supports someone; a person who has someone's back; a backer, a supporter."
      ],
      "id": "en-backfriend-en-noun-C3-n5E0T",
      "links": [
        [
          "friend",
          "friend#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "supports",
          "support#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "has someone's back",
          "has someone's back"
        ],
        [
          "backer",
          "backer"
        ],
        [
          "supporter",
          "supporter"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(archaic) A friend who supports someone; a person who has someone's back; a backer, a supporter."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "British",
        "archaic",
        "dialectal"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "40 36 24",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "35 25 40",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English endocentric compounds",
          "parents": [
            "Endocentric compounds",
            "Compound terms",
            "Terms by etymology"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "41 13 47",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "People",
          "orig": "en:People",
          "parents": [
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "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": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "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”)"
      ],
      "id": "en-backfriend-en-noun-8uSiq7yo",
      "links": [
        [
          "hangnail",
          "hangnail#English"
        ],
        [
          "loose",
          "loose#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "narrow",
          "narrow#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "strip",
          "strip#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "nail",
          "nail#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "tissue",
          "tissue#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "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": [
        {
          "_dis": "40 36 24",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "35 25 40",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English endocentric compounds",
          "parents": [
            "Endocentric compounds",
            "Compound terms",
            "Terms by etymology"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "41 13 47",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "People",
          "orig": "en:People",
          "parents": [
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person who pretends to be someone's friend; a false friend, a secret enemy."
      ],
      "id": "en-backfriend-en-noun-en:false_friend",
      "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"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "26 1 73",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "person who pretends to be someone’s friend",
          "word": "petollinen ystävä"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "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",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (Southern England)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "back-friend"
    }
  ],
  "word": "backfriend"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "British English",
    "English 2-syllable words",
    "English compound terms",
    "English contranyms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English dialectal terms",
    "English endocentric compounds",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
    "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "en:People"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "back",
        "3": "friend",
        "notext": "1",
        "pos1": "adverb or noun",
        "type": "endocentric"
      },
      "expansion": "back (adverb or noun) + friend",
      "name": "compound"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en"
      },
      "expansion": "English",
      "name": "langname"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "false friend",
        "uc": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "Sense 3",
      "name": "senseno"
    }
  ],
  "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.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "backfriends",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "backfriend (plural backfriends)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "back‧friend"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "a friend in need is a friend indeed"
    },
    {
      "word": "all-weather friend"
    },
    {
      "word": "fair-weather friend"
    },
    {
      "word": "frenemy"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with archaic senses",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages linking to anchors not found in Appendix:Glossary"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "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": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1980, David Carkeet, chapter 4, in Double Negative […], New York, N.Y.: Dial Press, 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": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A friend who supports someone; a person who has someone's back; a backer, a supporter."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "friend",
          "friend#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "supports",
          "support#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "has someone's back",
          "has someone's back"
        ],
        [
          "backer",
          "backer"
        ],
        [
          "supporter",
          "supporter"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(archaic) A friend who supports someone; a person who has someone's back; a backer, a supporter."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "British",
        "archaic",
        "dialectal"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "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": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "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”)"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "hangnail",
          "hangnail#English"
        ],
        [
          "loose",
          "loose#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "narrow",
          "narrow#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "strip",
          "strip#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "nail",
          "nail#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "tissue",
          "tissue#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "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"
      ],
      "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",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (Southern England)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "back-friend"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "person who pretends to be someone’s friend",
      "word": "petollinen ystävä"
    }
  ],
  "word": "backfriend"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). 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.