"fair weather friend" meaning in English

See fair weather friend in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: fair weather friends [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} fair weather friend (plural fair weather friends)
  1. Alternative form of fair-weather friend. Tags: alt-of, alternative Alternative form of: fair-weather friend
    Sense id: en-fair_weather_friend-en-noun-nKdxUsxi Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

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  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "fair weather friends",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "fair weather friend (plural fair weather friends)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "fair-weather friend"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
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        {
          "kind": "other",
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          "source": "w"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1839, [Lucius M. Sargent], Right Opposite. Founded on Fact (The Temperance Tales; II, number 6), Boston, Mass.: Published by Whipple and Damrell, No. 9 Cornhill; New York, N.Y.: Scofield and Voorhies, No. 118 Nassau Street, →OCLC, page 14:",
          "text": "Ere long a portion of the village spire began to appear among the trees, and the gilded telltale on its top, in which the slippery politician, and the fair weather friend, and the doubting disciple, who is blown about by every wind of doctrine, may behold a happy emblem of life and practice.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1852, C. Toler Wolfe, “Nothing Like Travel”, in A Book of Odds and Ends, Winchester, Va.: Printed by C. Toler Wolfe, Republican Office, →OCLC, page 34:",
          "text": "Be not pestered with too many friends. […] There are as many grades of friends as there are plaids in the tartan. There is the friend of \"ifs, buts, and ands,\" who always signifies that he would if he could, but as he can't, how can he? Then comes your fair weather''' friend, who deserts you the very first time you founder in the mud!",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Andrew Humphries, Richard Gibbs, “Operational Implications of Culture”, in Enterprise Relationship Management: A Paradigm for Alliance Success, Farnham, Surrey, Burlington, Vt.: Gower Publishing, →ISBN, page 63:",
          "text": "One respondent to a Gibbs and Humphries's research initiative characterised their senior management as ‘fair weather friends’ – keen to support the partnering initiative on day one and when things are going well, but eager to distance themselves when times got tough.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
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      "id": "en-fair_weather_friend-en-noun-nKdxUsxi",
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{
  "forms": [
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  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {},
      "expansion": "fair weather friend (plural fair weather friends)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
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          "word": "fair-weather friend"
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        "English multiword terms",
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      "examples": [
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          "ref": "1839, [Lucius M. Sargent], Right Opposite. Founded on Fact (The Temperance Tales; II, number 6), Boston, Mass.: Published by Whipple and Damrell, No. 9 Cornhill; New York, N.Y.: Scofield and Voorhies, No. 118 Nassau Street, →OCLC, page 14:",
          "text": "Ere long a portion of the village spire began to appear among the trees, and the gilded telltale on its top, in which the slippery politician, and the fair weather friend, and the doubting disciple, who is blown about by every wind of doctrine, may behold a happy emblem of life and practice.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1852, C. Toler Wolfe, “Nothing Like Travel”, in A Book of Odds and Ends, Winchester, Va.: Printed by C. Toler Wolfe, Republican Office, →OCLC, page 34:",
          "text": "Be not pestered with too many friends. […] There are as many grades of friends as there are plaids in the tartan. There is the friend of \"ifs, buts, and ands,\" who always signifies that he would if he could, but as he can't, how can he? Then comes your fair weather''' friend, who deserts you the very first time you founder in the mud!",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Andrew Humphries, Richard Gibbs, “Operational Implications of Culture”, in Enterprise Relationship Management: A Paradigm for Alliance Success, Farnham, Surrey, Burlington, Vt.: Gower Publishing, →ISBN, page 63:",
          "text": "One respondent to a Gibbs and Humphries's research initiative characterised their senior management as ‘fair weather friends’ – keen to support the partnering initiative on day one and when things are going well, but eager to distance themselves when times got tough.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
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      ],
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      ],
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  ],
  "word": "fair weather friend"
}

Download raw JSONL data for fair weather friend meaning in English (2.3kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). 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.

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