hail-fellow

English

Alternative forms

hailfellow

Adjective

hail-fellow (not comparable)

1. Synonym of hail-fellow-well-met
   • 1897, Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous:

     And there were ministers of many creeds,—pastors of great, gilt-edged congregations, at the seaside for a rest, with shepherds of the regular work,—from the priests of the Church on the Hill to bush-bearded ex-sailor Lutherans, hail-fellow with the men of a score of boats.

Noun

hail-fellow (plural hail-fellows)

1. (dated) A close acquaintance.
   • 1580, John Lyly, Euphues and His England:

     that being forbidden to be bold thou shouldst grow impudent, or being suffered to be familiar thou shouldst wax hail-fellow?.

   • 1901, Miles Franklin, My Brilliant Career, Chapter 4:

     Losing money every time he sold a beast, wasting stamps galore on letters to endless auctioneers, frequently remaining in town half a week at a stretch, and being hail-fellow to all the spongers to be found on the trail of such as he, quickly left him on the verge of bankruptcy. Some of his contemporaries say it was grog that did it all.

Derived terms

• hail fellow well met

References

• “hail-fellow”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.