Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A friend; a chum.
  • intransitive verb To associate as friends or chums. Often used with around.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Partner; mate; chum; accomplice.
  • noun A Middle English form of pale.
  • noun An abbreviation of Palestine
  • noun of paleontology.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Slang A mate; a partner; esp., an accomplice or confederate.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun colloquial A friend, buddy, mate, cobber, someone to hang around with.
  • verb Be friends with, hang around with.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb become friends; act friendly towards
  • noun a close friend who accompanies his buddies in their activities

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Romani phral, phal, from Sanskrit bhrātā, bhrātr-, brother; see bhrāter- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Angloromani phal, from Romani phral, from Sanskrit भ्रातृ (bhrātṛ), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰréh₂tēr. Cognates also include English brother, Ancient Greek φράτηρ (phratēr), Latin frater.

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Examples

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  • Jim often calls Artie this.

    October 4, 2012