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English
Noun
back-friend (plural back-friends)
- Alternative form of backfriend
1666 December 5 (Gregorian calendar); first published 1692, Robert South, “A Sermon Preach’d at Lambeth-Chapel on the 25th of November, 1666. [Julian calendar] upon the Consecration of the Right Reverend Father in God Dr. John Dolben, Lord Bishop of Rochester”, in Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions. , volume I, London: J H for Thomas Bennet, , →OCLC, page 206:And ſo far is our Church from encroaching upon the Civil Povver, as ſome, vvho are Back-Friends to both, vvould maliciouſly inſinuate; that vvere it ſtripped of the very Remainder of its Privileges, and made as like the Primitive Church for its Bareneſs, as it is already for its Purity, it could chearfully, and vvhat is more, loyally, vvant all ſuch Privileges; […]
1707, Michael Bruce, “Sermon II. On Psalm 140. Verses 12, 13.”, in Good News in Evil Times for Fainting Believers, or The Summ of a Lecture upon Jeremiah 45 Chapter; , [S.l]: [s.n.], published 1708, →OCLC, pages 63–64:Tho they give us neither VVine nor Ale; yet if they give us a Cup of cold VVater in the time of need, in the name of Diſciple, in the name of Miniſters, they ſhall not loſe their Revvard. Novv, vvell's us for our Back-friend, he vvill ay maintain our Cauſe; […]
1822 May 29, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in The Fortunes of Nigel. , volume II, Edinburgh: [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, pages 88–89:It is even as I suspected, my lord, […] Ye have back-friends, my lord, that is, unfriends—or, to be plain, enemies—about the person of the Prince.
1823, [Walter Scott], “The Bohemians”, in Quentin Durward. , volume I, Edinburgh: [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 123:I would always have been able to keep up my spirits with the reflection, that I had, in case of the worst, a stout back-friend in this uncle of mine. But now I have seen him, and, woe worth him, there has been more help in a mere mechanical stranger than I have found in my own mother's brother, my countryman and a cavalier.
1866, E Lynn Linton, “Margaret and Ainslie”, in Lizzie Lorton of Greyrigg. , New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, , →OCLC, page 121, column 2:[…] Corrie bit another atom from off the corner of his nail. He had a troublesome "back-friend" or "agnail," at which he often bit.