friend with benefits

Possibly first used by Alanis Morissette for her 1995 song “Head over Feet”, although in the original context it seems to refer to a committed rather than a casual relationship.^[1]

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

friend with benefits (plural friends with benefits)

1. (idiomatic, slang, non-vulgar) A friend with whom one has a casual sexual relationship.

   Synonyms: fuck buddy; see also Thesaurus:casual sexual partner

   • 2003, Alexander Hart, Time in Question:

     “I’m just saying that usually when you have a friend who’s a girl, it’s not just that she’s your friend. Either you’ve known her a long time, or she’s a friend with benefits.”

   • 2003, William Marsiglio, “Making Males Mindful of Their Sexual and Procreative Identities: Using Self-Narratives in Field Settings”, in Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, volume 35, number 5:

     Gender norms influence how young men orient themselves to sexual partners and girlfriends, and men’s procreative consciousness is sometimes affected by how they define a potential or actual sex partner (e.g., casual or serious girlfriend, “friend with benefits”, hookup).

   • 2004, Cynthia Henry, Discovering Normal:

     “Can I be so bold as to ask if I can be a friend with benefits?”

   • 2005, Jennifer Klein, University of Pennsylvania:

     The College Relationship is the hook up that turns into a “a person to hang out with,” more or less, a friend with benefits. This is a person whose company you sincerely enjoy, and you choose to spend extra time both hanging out and hooking up with, but there is no spoken commitment involved.

• friendship with benefits

• → Canadian French: ami avec bénéfices (calque)

• romantic friendship

• friends with benefits on Wikipedia.Wikipedia