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companion

nounverbcommon in dialogue

  • //kəmˈpæn.jən//

A friend, acquaintance or partner; someone with whom one spends time or accompanies

noun

  1. 1

    A friend, acquaintance or partner; someone with whom one spends time or accompanies

    His dog has been his trusted companion for the last five years.

    Heere are your Sonnes againe, and I muſt looſe / Two of the ſweet’ſt Companions in the World.

    The krogan have had a love-hate relationship with varren for millennia, alternately fighting them for territory and embracing them as treasured companions.

    For the most part, Hefner's female companions all adhered to the same mold: twentysomething, bosomy and blonde. "Well, I guess I know what I like," he once said when asked about his preferences.

  2. 2

    datedA person employed to accompany or travel with another.

  3. 3

    The framework on the quarterdeck of a sailing ship through which daylight entered the cabins below.

  4. 4

    The covering of a hatchway on an upper deck which leads to the companionway; the stairs themselves.

  5. 5

    A knot in whose neighborhood another, specified knot meets every meridian disk.

  6. 6

    figurativeA person, thing or phenomenon that is closely associated with another person, thing or phenomenon.

  7. 7

    An appended source of media or information, designed to be used in conjunction with and to enhance the main material.

    The companion guide gives an in-depth analysis of this particular translation.

  8. 8

    A celestial object that is associated with another.

  9. 9

    A knight of the lowest rank in certain orders.

    a companion of the Bath

  10. 10

    obsoleteA fellow; a rogue.

    [L]et vs knog our praines together to be reuenge on this ſame ſcall ſcuruy-cogging-companion the Hoſt of the Garter.

Etymology

From Middle English companion, from Old French compaignon (“companion”) (modern French compagnon), from Late Latin compāniōn- (nominative singular compāniō, whence French copain), from com- + pānis (literally, with + bread), a word first attested in the Frankish Lex Salica as a calque of a Germanic word, probably Frankish *galaibo, *gahlaibō (“messmate”, literally “with-bread”), from Proto-Germanic *gahlaibô. Compare also Old High German galeipo (“messmate”) and Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌻𐌰𐌹𐌱𐌰 (gahlaiba, “messmate”); and, for the semantics, compare Old Armenian ընկեր (ənker, “friend”, literally “messmate”). More at co-, loaf. Displaced native Old English ġefēra (literally “fellow traveler”). Compare company and mate.

verb

  1. 1

    obsoleteTo be a companion to; to attend on; to accompany.

    we had better turn south quickly and compare the elements of education which formed , and of creation which companioned , Salvator .

  2. 2

    obsoleteTo qualify as a companion; to make equal.

    Finde me to marrie me with Octauius Cæſar, and companion me with my Miſtris.

Forms

plural
companions
past tense
companioned
past participle
companioned
present participle
companioning
third person singular
companions
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).