Jump to content

girlfriend

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: girl friend

English

[edit]

Alternative forms

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

Compound of girl +‎ friend.

Pronunciation

[edit]

Noun

[edit]

girlfriend (plural girlfriends)

  1. A female partner in an unmarried romantic relationship.
    Coordinate terms: boyfriend, enbyfriend, theyfriend, fiancée, lover, partner, significant other, sweetheart, wife, lady friend
    Marc went to the park with his girlfriend and watched the sunset with her.
    I was playing the acoustic guitar and my girlfriend was playing the drums.
    • 1966, “The Man Trap”, in Star Trek: The Original Series, season 1, episode 1 (television production), spoken by Capt. James T. Kirk (William Shatner), Paramount Pictures:
      Want to pick some flowers, doctor? When a man visits an old girlfriend she usually expects something like that.
    • 2015 June 24, Katia Hetter, “Former Playboy girlfriends Holly Madison and Kendra Wilkinson feud”, in CNN‎[1]:
      Former Playboy Bunnies Holly Madison and Kendra Wilkinson, whose lives as Hugh Hefner’s girlfriends were featured in “The Girls Next Door” reality show, are feuding after Madison shared the claims of their less-than-glamorous life in the Playboy Mansion.
    • 2024 October 24, Jocelyn Solis-Moreira, “More straight couples are calling each other partner. Here’s why”, in CNN‎[2]:
      Referring to someone as your boyfriend or girlfriend suggests several things about your relationship, said Leah Carey, a sex and relationship coach and podcast host of “Good Girls Talk About Sex.”
  2. (somewhat dated) A female friend of a woman or girl.
    Synonym: (slang) chickfriend
    Coordinate terms: buddy, friend, pal, BFF
    Mary always enjoyed hanging out with her girlfriend Jessica.
    • 2018, Shiv Kotecha, The Switch, United States: Wonder, →ISBN, page 135:
      […] for the past 45 years, Neri had sat outside with her girlfriends Fotini and Eleni, two school friends who, having grown old in their company, Neri loved dearly.
  3. (LGBTQ) A fellow gay man, especially a friend as opposed to a sexual partner.
    • 1994, Eric Orner, The Seven Deadly Sins of Love (reprinted in The Completely Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green (2015), p. 53):
      [Tim:] james huh? my lover carlos's best girlfriend is named james.
      [James:] yes, i know. i AM your lover carlos's best girlfriend james.
  4. A term of address for a female friend or among gay men.
    • 1994, Eric Orner, The Seven Deadly Sins of Love (reprinted in The Completely Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green (2015), p. 32):
      [Hanque:] girlfriend - how'r we doing?
      [Doug:] hi hanque, i'd like a capuccino[sic] and some lobster bisque..
      [Caption:] (friendliness with the waitstaff is a good sign)

Usage notes

[edit]
  • The term is used to refer to any girl or woman in a romantic relationship with another person.
  • An adult woman in such a non-marital relationship is sometimes referred to instead as a significant other or partner, especially if the two partners are living together. Because girlfriend and partner mean different things to different people, the distinctions between the terms are subjective, and which term is used in a relationship will ultimately be determined by personal preference.
  • The use of girlfriend for a female non-romantic friend of another female is limited in geographic distribution and sometimes preferred by older generations of speakers. It is frowned upon by many sapphic women, who consider it a contributing factor in the erasure and denigration of sapphic relationships.

Derived terms

[edit]

Descendants

[edit]

Translations

[edit]

Verb

[edit]

girlfriend (third-person singular simple present girlfriends, present participle girlfriending, simple past and past participle girlfriended) (ambitransitive, informal, rare)

  1. To be a girlfriend to (someone).
    Coordinate term: boyfriend
    • 1996 August 12, kevin@upompeii.com, “Dating Dilemma”, in soc.singles‎[3] (Usenet), archived from the original on 6 December 2025:
      I was girlfriended during the past two years by a woman who worked an average job, and while we never lived together the assumption among our friends was we'd get married one day.
    • 1999 January 29, anita jamar, “I'm beginning to see the trend of more and more asian women dating white men.”, in soc.culture.asian.american‎[4] (Usenet), archived from the original on 6 December 2025:
      Most Black women don't spend their time sitting around and complaining about bm/wf and "girlfriending" each other.
    • 2003, Sharon Durling, “Money and Meaning”, in A Girl and Her Money, Nashville, Tenn.: W Publishing Group, →ISBN, chapter 2 (Your Money Personality—and You Do Have One), page 24:
      If money were a person, she’d be girlfriending with Oprah, sleeping in the Lincoln Bedroom, and noshing with the Pope.
    • 2017, Brian Platzer, chapter 5, in Bed-Stuy Is Burning: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Atria Books, →ISBN, page 19:
      She was a superwoman, she thought. […] A working, mothering, girlfriending, housekeeping superhero! You see—it could be done!
  2. To have (someone) as a girlfriend.
    Coordinate term: boyfriend
    • 1996 May 9, Surfer Bob, “Why do girlfriends hate VWs?”, in rec.autos.makers.vw.aircooled‎[5] (Usenet), archived from the original on 6 December 2025:
      Back when I was single, I dated and girlfriended around quite a bit and found many responses to my VW buses.
    • 1997 May 3, Hal Phillips, “People That Post to alt.discordia”, in alt.discordia‎[6] (Usenet), archived from the original on 6 December 2025:
      > How does one "girlfriend", anyway?
      By getting a girlfriend. The act of obtaining a girlfriend is called girlfriending. Example: "...so, I hit her with the wrench, and she passed out. When she woke up, I told her that when she had ORIGINALLY gotten up, I girlfriended her and then knocked her out again, and she must have amnesia. Presto! Instant girlfriend!"
    • 2001 May 1, johnband - lord of keys, “to male british ambers”, in alt.music.blur‎[7] (Usenet), archived from the original on 6 December 2025:
      > first of all, where are you? i haven't seen a man in amb for a long time!!! […]
      err, working, girlfriending, generally running out of time.
    • 2007 July 4, davidlaska, “I feel like a 10 cent whore”, in alt.life.sucks‎[8] (Usenet), archived from the original on 6 December 2025:
      One day I wrote down all the girls I had serous[sic] chance of girlfriending them.

Anagrams

[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=girlfriend&oldid=88396285"