friendly

comparative friendlier · comparative more friendly · superlative friendliest · superlative most friendly

1. Generally warm, approachable and easy to relate with in character.

   Your cat seems very friendly.

   2 more examples

   They stayed together during three dances, went out on to the terrace, explored wherever they were permitted to explore, paid two visits to the buffet, and enjoyed themselves much in the same way as if they had been school-children surreptitiously breaking loose from an assembly of grown-ups. The boy became volubly friendly and bubbling over with unexpected humour and high spirits.

   1909 September 9, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], “A Court Ball”, in The Squire’s Daughter, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 9

   Our friendliest carmates are a family from Armenia taking a vacation from the Georgian war.

   2007, Eugene Buchanan, Brothers on the Bashkaus: A Siberian Paddling Adventure, page 36

   Synonyms: chummy

2. Inviting, characteristic of friendliness.

   He gave a friendly smile.

   Synonyms: familiar

3. Having an easy or accepting relationship with something.

   a dog-friendly café

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   a user-friendly software program

   the use of environmentally friendly packaging

   The inter-working of the Bodensee-Toggenburg, Swiss South-Eastern and Swiss Federal Railways is of a most friendly kind.

   1956 January, 'Mercury', “The Railways of North-East Switzerland”, in Railway Magazine, page 23

   Hariri even nominated Hezbollah-friendly Sleiman Frangieh for the presidency, which by tradition is held by a Maronite Christian; but Hezbollah and Aoun held out, insisting that Aoun would be president or there would be no president at all.

   2016 October 22, Rami G Khouri, “Lebanese oligarchy preserves its interests once again”, in Aljazeera

   Older cryptocurrencies with regulatory overhang including Ripple's XRP and TRX were among the biggest gainers over the past month as Donald Trump's election victory promises a friendlier regulatory environment towards digital assets.

   2024 December 4, Krisztian Sandor, “Binance's BNB Hits Fresh Record, Breaks Out of 3-Year Range as Altcoin Rotation Accelerates”, in CoinDesk, archived from the original on 08 Dec 2024

4. in compoundsCompatible with, or not damaging to (the compounded noun).

   The cobbled streets aren't very bike-friendly.

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   Organic farms only use soil-friendly fertilisers.

   Our sandwiches are made with dolphin-friendly tuna.

   An offbeat pizza restaurant, which also serves pasta and salads, and bills itself as low-fat and heart-friendly. Has over forty different designer pizza toppings, such as smoked salmon, sour cream and caviar.

   2010, Tony Pinchuck, Barbara McCrea, Donald Reid, Ross Velton, The Rough Guide to South Africa, 6th edition, London: Rough Guides, →ISBN, pages 147–148

5. Without any hostility.

   a friendly competition

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   a friendly power or state

   in friendly relations with his moderate opponents

   1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter II, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC

6. Promoting the good of any person; favourable; propitious.

   a friendly breeze or gale

   1 more example

   Coarſe are his Meals, the Fortune of the Chaſe, / Amidſt the running Stream he ſlakes his Thirſt, / Toil's all the Day, and at th' approach of Night / On the firſt friendly Bank he throws him down, / Or reſts his Head upon a Rock 'till Morn: […]

   1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene iv, page 10

7. usuallygovernmentOf or pertaining to friendlies (friendly noun sense 2, below). Also applied to other bipolar confrontations, such as team sports.

   The soldier was killed by friendly fire.

8. mathematicsBeing or relating to two or more natural numbers with a common abundancy.

   friendly

   2 more examples

   friendly pairs

   friendly n-tuples

plural friendlies

1. hobbiesA game which is of no consequence in terms of ranking, betting, etc.

   This match is merely a friendly, so don't worry too much about it.

   1 more example

   Brazil provided a different test from Germany and gave England lessons Southgate will store before he gets his squad together again for friendlies against the Netherlands in Amsterdam and at home to Italy in March.

   2017 November 14, Phil McNulty, “England 0-0 Brazil”, in BBC News

2. A person or entity on the same side as one's own in a conflict.

   "What's coming?" "Dunno yet. Cindy! Active scanning! Pulse hard, but don't cook any friendlies."

   2017 July 6, Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary, archived from the original on 20 Jan 2024

   3 more examples

   These were speedily routed by the friendlies, who attacked the small force before them in fine style.

   1898, Ernest Bennett, The Downfall of the Dervishes

   You see, the mission of almost every teenage girl on the loose is to first identify the targets, just like a war. These include the primary objective (the boy), the enemy (other girls), the friendlies (sympathetic girl friends and the boy's family), and unfriendlies (other boys).

   2008, Dennis Wengert, A Very Healthy Insanity, page 44

   Reports from SMS Kaiser indicate scouting destroyers attacked and destroyed a large submarine to the north. Hipper orders the destroyers to be more careful; the High Seas Fleet is approaching the U-boat patrol line, and he has a feeling they've just sunk a friendly.

   2018 October 17, Drachinifel, 19:47 from the start, in Last Ride of the High Seas Fleet - Battle of Texel 1918, archived from the original on 04 Aug 2022

comparative more friendly · superlative most friendly

1. In a friendly manner; like a friend.

   And we cannot doubt, our Brothers in Physick [...] will friendly accept, if not countenance our endeavours.

   1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica

   1 more example

   And looke we friendly on them when they come: But if they offer word or violence, Weele fight fiue hundred men at armes to one, Before we part with our poſſeſſion: […]

   c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii

   Synonyms: amicably, friendlily

1. A place name:
   1. A suburban settlement just west of Sowerby Bridge, Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England (OS grid ref SE0524).
   2. A census-designated place in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States.
   3. A neighbourhood of Eugene, Lane County, Oregon, United States.
   4. A town in Tyler County, West Virginia, United States.
2. A surname.