befriend
v.to become friends with someone. You use this when you start a new friendship.
v.to establish a friendly relationship with another person. Transitive — requires a direct object.
“I hope to befriend some locals while I am here.”
“The two students quickly befriend each other during their first week of the summer program.”
“While the initial meeting was purely professional, the two researchers eventually befriend one another over shared interests in classical literature and jazz.”
“At Kingsway college in 1976, he befriended an older kid with green hair whose favourite word was “dismal”.”
“And try to befriend people who have cars.”
From be- + friend. Compare Saterland Frisian befrüündje (“to befriend”), Dutch bevrienden (“to befriend”), German Low German befründen (“to befriend”), German befreunden (“to befriend”). Compare also West Frisian befreone (“befriended”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.