"little friend" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "little friends",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "little friend (plural little friends)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Education",
          "orig": "en:Education",
          "parents": [
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "91 9",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The little friend of 2 is 3 because 2 + 3 = 5.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021 February 21, Samuel P. León, María del Carmen Carcelén Fraile, Inmaculada García-Martínez, “Development of Cognitive Abilities through the Abacus in Primary Education Students: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial”, in Education Sciences, volume 11, number 2, Basel, Switzerland: MDPI, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC",
          "text": "In Sessions 6 and 7, the little friends (terminology that refers to the numbers that are missing to reach another number, e.g., the number 1 is missing 4 to reach 5, so 1 is a little friend of 4) were applied in addition to being used when a calculation could not be performed directly because there were not enough pieces in the row to be added. In Sessions 8 and 9, the same little friends were used, but, in this case, when there are not enough pieces in the row to be subtracted.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A natural number which when added to another number equals 5."
      ],
      "id": "en-little_friend-en-noun-hUxcZTvP",
      "links": [
        [
          "education",
          "education"
        ],
        [
          "abacus",
          "abacus"
        ],
        [
          "natural number",
          "natural number#Noun"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "abacus jargon",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(education, abacus jargon) A natural number which when added to another number equals 5."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "small friend"
        }
      ],
      "topics": [
        "education"
      ]
    },
    {
      "coordinate_terms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "word": "big friend"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see little, friend."
      ],
      "id": "en-little_friend-en-noun-6L-eAirg",
      "links": [
        [
          "little",
          "little#English"
        ],
        [
          "friend",
          "friend#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "little friend"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns"
  ],
  "coordinate_terms": [
    {
      "word": "big friend"
    }
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "little friends",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "little friend (plural little friends)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "en:Education"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The little friend of 2 is 3 because 2 + 3 = 5.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021 February 21, Samuel P. León, María del Carmen Carcelén Fraile, Inmaculada García-Martínez, “Development of Cognitive Abilities through the Abacus in Primary Education Students: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial”, in Education Sciences, volume 11, number 2, Basel, Switzerland: MDPI, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC",
          "text": "In Sessions 6 and 7, the little friends (terminology that refers to the numbers that are missing to reach another number, e.g., the number 1 is missing 4 to reach 5, so 1 is a little friend of 4) were applied in addition to being used when a calculation could not be performed directly because there were not enough pieces in the row to be added. In Sessions 8 and 9, the same little friends were used, but, in this case, when there are not enough pieces in the row to be subtracted.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A natural number which when added to another number equals 5."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "education",
          "education"
        ],
        [
          "abacus",
          "abacus"
        ],
        [
          "natural number",
          "natural number#Noun"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "abacus jargon",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(education, abacus jargon) A natural number which when added to another number equals 5."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "small friend"
        }
      ],
      "topics": [
        "education"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see little, friend."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "little",
          "little#English"
        ],
        [
          "friend",
          "friend#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "little friend"
}