Friendly

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈfrÉ›ndli/, /ˈfrÉ›nli/

Origin

friend + -ly.

Adjective

1. Generally warm, approachable and easy to relate with in character.Your cat seems very friendly.
2. Inviting, characteristic of friendliness.He gave a friendly smile.
3. Having an easy relationship with something, as in user-friendly etc.
4. Without any hostility.a friendly competitiona friendly power or state
• Macaulayin friendly relations with his moderate opponents
5. Promoting the good of any person; favourable; propitious.a friendly breeze or gale
• AddisonOn the first friendly bank he throws him down.
6. (military) Of or pertaining to friendlies (friendly noun sense 2, below). Also applied to other bipolar confrontations, such as team sportsThe soldier was killed by friendly fire.
7. (number theory) Being or relating to two or more natural numbers with a common abundancy.friendly numbers, friendly pairs, friendly n-tuples

Antonyms

• unfriendly
• hostile

Derived terms

• family friendly
• friendliness
• friendly fire
• Friendly Islands
• radio-friendly
• user-friendly

Full definition of friendly

Adverb

1. (now rare) In a friendly manner, like a friend.
• 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica:And we cannot doubt, our Brothers in Physick ... will friendly accept, if not countenance our endeavours.

Synonyms

• amicably, friendlily

Noun

1. (sports) A game which is of no consequence in terms of ranking, betting etc.''Even as friendlies, derbies often arouse strong emotions
2. A person or entity on the same side of a conflict.
• 2008, Dennis Wengert, A Very Healthy Insanity (page 44)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).