bosom friend

plural bosom friends · alternative bosomfriend · alternative bosom-friend

1. A very close friend.

   Everybody loves a landlord / Everybody's bosom friend

   1983, Herbert Kretzmer, “Master of the House”, in Les Misérables

   5 more examples

   I could not have believed it! And to propose that she and I should unite to form a musical club! One would fancy we were bosom friends! And Mrs. Weston!

   1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], Emma: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC

   But I cared a great deal for the much more formidable person who was behind him, the bosom friend of Moriarty, the man who dropped the rocks over the cliff, the most cunning and dangerous criminal in London.

   1903 September 26, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Empty House”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905, →OCLC

   “A—a what kind of friend?” “A bosom friend—an intimate friend, you know—a really kindred spirit to whom I can confide my inmost soul. I’ve dreamed of meeting her all my life. […]”

   1908 June, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, Boston, Mass.: L[ouis] C[oues] Page & Company, →OCLC

   Jerry was Morel’s bosom friend, and Mrs. Morel disliked him.

   1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC

   I pour you the farewell wine as you set out from the capital— Soon I shall be left behind here by my bosom-friend. In your sail-boat of sweet cinnamon-wood You will float again toward your own thatch door

   1982, Witter Bynner, The Chinese Translations, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 225

   Synonyms: bosom buddy, cater-cousin, intimate, ace boon coon